Final winter meet sees sharp drop in all-sources handle

The final winter meet at Aqueduct won’t be remembered fondly. Not only was the weather brutal, so too was business.

All-sources handle for the three-month winter session (Jan. 1-March 29) was $194,567,766, a 23.9 percent decrease from the 2025 winter meet during which handle was $255,640,649, according to figures provided by the New York Racing Association.

This year’s winter meet consisted of 43 cards and 353 races compared to the 2025 meet which had 45 cards and 388 races. Average daily handle this winter was $4,524,832, down 20.4 percent from last year’s average daily handle of $5,680,903.

Snow and cold resulted in nine scheduled cards to be canceled during the 2026 winter meet including three Saturday programs and four Sunday cards. Seven of those programs were made-up, two on Wednesdays and five on Thursdays that were originally scheduled as dark days.

Average field size for the meet was 6.53 horses per race down from 6.76. In March, when NYRA conducted 16 programs – including three make-up cards – average field size was 6.2 horses per race compared to 7.2 last March.

Difficulty filling races led NYRA to card seven-race programs on five occasions, compared to one seven-race card last winter.

Over the last two months of the winter meet, NYRA operated under new guardrails for Computer Assisted Wagering bettors, requiring their activity to cease at one minute to post in all wagering pools not previously subject to restrictions. As a result, CAW play was down 25 percent, which contributed 5 percent to the 23.9 percent decline in total handle.

Aqueduct’s spring meet started Thursday and will go through April 26. The Belmont at the Big A spring meet runs from April 30 thru June 28, the final day of racing at Aqueduct.

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