Handle flat at Fair Grounds; Hawthorne sees declines

Betting on the 80-day Fair Grounds meet that ended March 31 showed slight increases compared with the 2016-17 season, but that is not especially good news for the historic New Orleans racetrack.

Last year’s Fair Grounds meet took a major hit when the equine herpesvirus was discovered in the backstretch population, and all-sources average daily handle dropped more than 8 percent from the 2015-16 season. And though the track did better, this season’s business didn’t come close to rebounding to 2015-16 levels, according to the Louisiana Racing Commission.

The LRC said it didn’t receive final business figures from Fair Grounds until this week, more than a month after the meet’s end, owing to a change in personnel at the track. Fair Grounds, per the policy of parent company Churchill Downs Inc., doesn’t publish handle figures.

Fair Grounds’s gross handle was up half a percentage point to $198,144,110 from $197,240,793 during an 81-day meet last year. Average daily all-sources handle increased 1.7 percent, from $2,435,071 to $2,476,801.

Fair Grounds averaged 8.30 starters per race, down slightly from 8.32 last season. There were 762 races and 6,236 starters compared with 774 races and 6,443 starters during 2016-17. Average handle per race increased 2 percent, from $254,833 to $260,032, and average handle per starter was up 2.2 percent, from $30,613 to $31,322.

The 258 turf races at this meet averaged 9.26 starters compared with 9.15 starters in 255 turf races last season.

Favorites won 38 percent of the races compared with 42 percent last season. Many of those favorites were trained by Brad Cox, who won the training title with 54 wins, five more than runner-up Joe Sharp. Tom Amoss was the return-on-investment king among the leading trainers, his 37 winners producing a $2.56 ROI.

Shaun Bridghoman led a tight pack at the top of the jockey standings, winning 66 races, one more than Adam Beschizza and three more than Florent Geroux. Beschizza, an English export riding his first full meet in America, had a breakout winter riding nearly all the live runners Sharp sent out.

Cox and Maggi Moss tied for leading owner with 12 wins at the meet.

Hawthorne’s business tumbles

Hawthorne hosted fewer cards, ran fewer races, and handled much less betting during its abbreviated spring meet than it did last spring, according to the Illinois Racing Board.

Gross handle on 15 programs during a meet that ended April 29 was $18,466,320, down 38 percent from the $29,747,806 handled during the 2017 spring meet, which had 22 programs.

Hawthorne ran just 122 races this spring compared with 185 a year ago, averaging 7.03 starters per race compared with 7.18 last year. Average daily all-sources handle was down 9 percent from $1,352,173 to $1,231,088. Hawthorne was able to run only seven turf races during the 2017 spring season but managed to get in 19 this year.

Scott Becker was leading trainer with 10 wins, while Chris Emigh topped the jockey standings with 14 winners, two more than Hawthorne newcomer Sophie Doyle.