Handle down slightly on Breeders' Cup races

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Total handle on the 13 Breeders’ Cup races held Friday and Saturday at Keeneland in Lexington was down marginally compared with handle on the same races last year at Santa Anita, according to charts of the races, despite the appearance of superstar American Pharoah in the final race of his career.

While television ratings for the Classic are certain to be far higher than last year’s telecast of the race, the Breeders’ Cup had several hurdles to overcome this year in order to post gains in betting handle. Most critically due to its impact on betting on the West Coast, post time for the first Breeders’ Cup race this Saturday was 12:05 p.m. Eastern, as much as three hours earlier than the first post at any Breeders’ Cup since 2007.

In addition, high-profile scratches from the Classic, which always attracts the most interest from bettors, reduced the race’s field to eight horses and made the projected pace of the race one-dimensional, limiting gamblers’ options.

Counting all horizontal bets that ended in the Breeders’ Cup races, total betting for the four races on Friday and the nine races Saturday was $125.9 million, down 1.5 percent from last year. The same races in the same order were held on Friday in both years, whereas the order of the Saturday races was shuffled significantly.

Handle for the Classic, which suffered from the scratch of second choice Beholder on Thursday and then by the morning scratch of a swift contender, Smooth Roller, on Saturday, was $28.6 million, according to the chart, down 2.2 percent from last year’s race, which had 11 horses.

American Pharoah, who galloped in this year’s race in his career finale, was 7-10, and a significant portion of the bets made to win on the horse are not likely to be cashed.

While the scratch of Beholder may have had a negative impact on handle in the late pick three and pick four, handle for the pick six on Saturday was resurrected by a decision by the Breeders’ Cup to reduce the minimum for the bet to $1 from $2. Handle on Saturday’s pick six was $3.06 million, up approximately 25 percent from last year’s Saturday pick 6, which just narrowly missed hitting a $2.5 million guarantee.

Weakness on the West Coast showed up in the betting for the first two Breeders’ Cup races on the Saturday card, which started at 9:05 a.m. and 9:45 a.m. in California, the second-largest horse-racing market in the U.S. Handle on the Juvenile Fillies, the first race, was down 18.5 percent compared with the first race last year – despite the appearance of Songbird, a California-based filly who ran her undefeated record to four races in the race.

In addition, handle on the second Breeders’ Cup race on Saturday, the Turf Sprint, was down 15 percent (when disregarding a pick five that ended on the second Breeders’ Cup race last year but did not end until the third Breeders’ Cup race this year).

Handle on the late pick four ending in the Classic this year was $3.8 million, down 4.4 percent from last year. The guarantee for the late pick four was $3 million. Handle for a late pick three with a guarantee of $750,000 was $846,000.

Total handle on the 10-race Friday card and the 12-race Saturday card at Keeneland was $150.6 million, according to the Breeders’ Cup, down 0.8 percent from last year’s total of $151.8 million for the two-day event at Santa Anita. Total ontrack handle at Keeneland over the two days was $20.6 million, up 2.4 percent over the $20.1 million bet ontrack last year at Santa Anita.

The $150.6 million total figure is well below the record of $173.9 million set in 2010 at Churchill Downs. The 2010 figure includes separate-pool handle from foreign jurisdictions, which is typically added into the final number within a week of the event. The 2010 card featured Zenyatta in the Classic, and handle figures were boosted by a carryover in the pick six.

Total handle for the entire Saturday card this year was $105.6 million, according to the Breeders’ Cup, down marginally from the $106 million bet last year on the Saturday card.

The Breeders’ Cup said attendance at Keeneland on Saturday was 50,155, a figure that includes people who were in tailgate areas of the track and were not able to enter the track. On the Friday card, Breeders’ Cup said attendance was 44,947.