Del Mar: Total handle at fall meet for non-Breeders Cup dates inches up

Total handle on races held at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Southern California during the 16-day meet that concluded Sunday, including the two-day Breeders’ Cup event, was $283.9 million, according to an analysis by Daily Racing Form, compared to $301.7 million in handle at a 15-day meet in 2021, when the track last hosted the Breeders’ Cup.

Excluding the two Breeders’ Cup days, total handle on Del Mar’s races over 14 days was $105.2 million this year, compared to $104.7 million in total handle on Del Mar’s races last year during a 13-day meet that did not include the Breeders’ Cup, an increase of 0.5 percent.

Average handle per race for the races held on non-Breeders’ Cup days this year was $855,100, according to the analysis, an 8.3 percent decline compared to average handle last year of $926,448.

Handle on races at Southern California tracks is being closely watched because wagering figures have been on a protracted decline in the state for the past several years, leading industry officials to begin contemplating drastic steps to reverse the trend. However, comparisons between the two Del Mar November meets in 2023 and 2024 do not provide a clear picture for the direction of handle because of the large number of factors complicating the analysis.

Although average handle per race dropped 8.3 percent compared to last year when only including non-Breeders’ Cup days, the exclusion of the Breeders’ Cup dates means excluding a Friday and a Saturday from the 2024 analysis. Handle is generally highest on those two days of the week, so the average for 2024 suffers from those omissions.

Field sizes, at least, seemed to increase in the main. For the 14 non-Breeders’ Cup days, field size was 7.72 horse per race, up from 7.43 horse per race during the entire 13-day November meet last year. Including the Breeders’ Cup races, the average field size for the entire meet was 8.14 horses, compared to 8.10 horses during the 15-day 2021 meet that included the Breeders’ Cup.

However, the average purse for races held on the non-Breeders’ Cup days this year was down 10.3 percent, from $59,867 last year to $53,707 this year. A portion of overnight purses this year was directed to undercard races on the two Breeders’ Cup days, and those purses are generally higher than the average purses.

The average purse for the entire meet this year was $263,144, compared to the average purse of $276,761 during the entire 2021 Breeders’ Cup meet. The total amount of purses for the Breeders’ Cup in 2021 was $28 million, compared to $30 million this year.

A better comparison for the direction of the Del Mar November meet will be available next fall. The track will host the Breeders’ Cup for the second consecutive year, on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1.

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