Handle down at rain-soaked Belmont fall meet

Bad weather meant bad business for the New York Racing Association during the Belmont Park fall meet.

Plagued by rain that forced 64 scheduled turf races to be moved to the main track, all-sources handle at Belmont was $269,002,237, down 11 percent from last fall’s figure of $303,405,927. Last fall, only five races were moved off the turf. There were only 117 turf races run this year compared with 181 last year.

Both the 2018 and 2017 Belmont meets were 35 days, each meet losing a day to bad weather on closing weekend. This year, Belmont’s closing Saturday card was canceled. Last year, Belmont’s closing Sunday card was scrapped.

The lack of turf racing had a significant impact on field size. Average field size this fall was 7.29, down from 8.24 last fall. Average field size on turf was 8.39, compared with 8.98 in 2017. Average field size on dirt was 6.68, compared with 7.34 in 2017.

Ontrack handle at Belmont was $33,396,906, down 10.3 percent from last year’s figure of $37,259,201.

The lack of turf racing hardly slowed Chad Brown, who won his seventh consecutive Belmont fall trainer’s title – he tied for leading trainer twice in that span – with 38 wins, twice as many as runner-up Gary Contessa, who had a sensational meet himself with 19 wins.

Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. finished as leading jockey with 44 wins, six more than runner-up Manny Franco.

Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables was leading owner with 15 wins, one more than Michael Dubb.