Handle drops at Evangline meet

OPELOUSAS, La. – Business at the 2010 Evangeline Downs meeting that concluded on Labor Day fell in line with industry trends and showed moderate declines from 2009.

All sources handle on the 89-day meeting totaled $129.4 million and averaged $1.45 million per program. Those figures were 5.4 percent less than what the same number of race days produced last year. Total ontrack handle of 5.03 million represented an even steeper decline of 10.7 percent from 2009.

On the track, John Jacinto was a runaway winner of the rider crown with 128 wins compared with runner-up Gerard Melancon’s 82. Perennial training champ Keith Bourgeois added another title by sending out 89 winners to longtime rival Sam Breaux’s 53.