Del Mar handle down compared to last year

Despite strong business on Pacific Classic day last Saturday, handle for the Del Mar summer meeting will show declines from 2022.

Mike Ernst, the track’s chief financial officer, said on Wednesday that all-sources handle for the season is down “a little more than 9 percent.” The eight-week summer meeting began on July 21 and concludes on Sunday.

This year, the season included 30 days of racing compared to 31 in 2022. Del Mar did not race on Sunday, Aug. 20 because of rain from the remnants of Hurricane Hilary.

“That was something we’ve never had to worry about before,” Ernst said.

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DEL MAR, Calif. — With three days of racing this weekend, Ernst projected that Del Mar’s all-source handle will surpass $520 million but fail to reach the 2022 figure of more than $579.8 million.

The decline this summer is similar to other major venues in the nation. Saratoga, which ended its meeting on Monday, announced a 9 percent drop in all-sources handle from 2022.

At Del Mar, all-sources handle on the 11-race Pacific Classic program was more than $27.7 million, the second-highest on a non-Breeders’ Cup program in track history. The 2021 Pacific Classic program handled more than $36 million.

The decline in total handle this year will lead to discussions in coming weeks between track executives and the leadership of the Thoroughbred Owners of California regarding purse levels for the track’s four-week autumn meeting from Nov. 10 through Dec. 3.

Ernst said there is a possibility purses could be lower this year than the 2022 autumn meeting, but that every effort will be made to maintain purses for the summer meeting at least at current levels.

“We’ll look at projections for the fall,” Ernst said. “Our goal is to maintain the summer race meet purses. It’s our flagship meet and the flagship meet in California.”

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