Delaware handle down 7 percent in 2019

Delaware Park raced the same number of dates this year as in 2018 but ran fewer races. The result was a 7 percent decline in all-sources handle at the 81-day meet.

Delaware had difficulty filling its races this summer. The contributing factors were an earlier opening to the meet, no turf racing for the first few weeks, and several strangles positives in early July just prior to the track’s two biggest weekends, which are topped by the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap and the Grade 3 Delaware Oaks.

Delaware opened May 4 this year compared to May 30 in 2018. The track had difficulty filling its all-dirt cards during that time span.

The strangles situation likely cost the track some horses on the meet’s two biggest days, as horses who shipped to Delaware were not allowed to return to their home tracks due to restrictions put in place by virtually all of the racing associations in the Mid-Atlantic.

Total handle during the Delaware season was $104.2 million, down from $112 million in 2018. But while the track held 715 races a year ago, it held only 661 in 2019, a decline of 7.6 percent.

Average per-race handle actually increased this year from $156,701 to $157,640.

“We had a tough season filling races for many reasons, including a strangles positive that negatively impacted our featured Delaware Oaks and Delaware Handicap race days.” said Kevin DeLucia, senior vice president of racing and finance at Delaware Park. “The reality of overlapping racetrack dates and lack of coordination of stakes races in the Mid-Atlantic region have always presented us with difficult obstacles. Despite these challenges, we were encouraged that the average handle per race increased slightly.”

Average field size at Delaware dropped marginally from 6.65 horses per race in 2018 to 6.56 this year.