Some will have you believe that numbers don’t lie but the truth is they are a tricky group of digits that can be interpreted any number of ways. To prove this point, I took the liberty of analyzing the week of U.S. harness racing (including Woodbine Mohawk Park as the top Canadian track in terms of purses) from January 29 to February 4 as it relates to field size and purses. The numbers are supplied below, but let’s dig a bit deeper into what they may or may not mean. We often hear how important field size is for horseplayers and it is no surprise to see the two highest-handling tracks - The Meadowlands and Woodbine Mohawk Park - sitting second and third in this supposedly vital statistic. If field size is of the utmost importance, how do you explain the leader in that category - Miami Valley - falling so far below the top tier in handle? Using Monday January 29 as an example, Miami Valley handled $579,758 according to the USTA records ($41,411 per race) while Woodbine Mohawk Park followers sent in a much more robust $1,524,735 (converted to U.S.D.) for an average of $138,612 per race. One has to wonder why bettors aren’t flocking to play the track with the biggest fields. Horse people are certainly supporting the product since they offer the second largest purse structure behind Yonkers Raceway. My guess is that bettors don’t even realize Miami Valley has the biggest field size. Another factor could include that certain ADWs don’t take wagers on the signal. Either way, if I ran Miami Valley I’d be publicizing the field size constantly. While Miami Valley sits at the top of the heap in field size, ironically Yonkers Raceway, despite offering the highest purse structure on the continent for Standardbred racing, is right near the bottom when it comes to the average number of horses in each race. In a purse-driven economy, one certainly has to wonder why they aren’t luring more horses. In terms of handle, using the same January 29 date from above, Yonkers checked in at $609,732 for an average of $60,973 per race, ranking much higher than Miami Valley despite an average of 7.3 horses per race versus 9.14 at Miami Valley that day. So maybe field size doesn’t mean much at all. Perhaps wagering simply comes down to brand loyalty. Yonkers has been around for 125 years and Miami Valley is at 10. Making another comparison, while I give tons of credit to The Meadowlands for hustling hard for horses to make sure there are full fields, is the quality of the product right now at the New Jersey track really better than what is being put out at Miami Valley? I’m not sure you could answer yes. But The Meadowlands has been handling millions a night for years and is known as the top track in the sport by many. That’s a huge edge! When you discuss tradition (or live racing consistency in this case) as it relates to handle, Northfield Park and Monticello Raceway are King. Yes, Northfield has a strong 8.75 average field size but more importantly they have a core audience of players that support the product to the average tune of $1 million-plus per card, which easily ranks it third in terms of handle behind Meadowlands and Mohawk. Monticello is a story unto itself and something we’ll cover more in the near future, but despite the lowest purse structure and one of the smaller averages in field size, the track consistently out-handles all other afternoon harness tracks and many of the night ones on a per-race basis. People often love to compare purses to handle or field size to handle but the bottom line is that the correlation is often dependent on many other factors. Cal Expo sits last in field size because it is basically on an island in terms of horse population. Horses are either in California or they aren’t. You’ll get a shipper from British Columbia at times but usually the pool of horses is very small. Miami Valley is in a great situation because not only do they offer huge purses but also can draw from Midwest regions that race scarcely like Illinois and Michigan or are shut down for the winter like Minnesota and Indiana. Miami Valley also can go with 10 horses in a race. Certainly Northfield Park would have a slightly higher average if they wanted to have two horses in the second tier. Focusing solely on purses, while sometimes the averages are directly related to whether the track is getting outside money from casino or sports wagering, other times discrepancies between tracks racing in the same state come down to racing dates. While Miami Valley is offering nearly twice as much per race as Northfield Park, that is because they race fewer than half the dates. In 2024 Miami Valley is scheduled to offer 86 cards of racing while Northfield (depending on what happens with all of the canceled dates of late) was expected to race 209 programs. So in reality Northfield is offering higher total purses than Miami Valley in 2024. What can we really take away from all of the numbers that we’ve discussed on this page? Some tracks are doing less with more and others are doing more with less. It all depends on what numbers you want to focus on; interpret them however you please. HARNESS TRACKS RANKED BY AVERAGE FIELD SIZE - 1/29/24 - 2/4/24 TRACK   AVG FIELD SIZE # OF RACES TOTAL PURSES PURSE PER RACE Miami Valley 9.54 70 $1,111,500 $15,878.57 Meadowlands 9.50 28 $313,000 $11,178.57 Mohawk Park 9.26 45 $563,505 $12,522.33 Rosecroft 8.92 28 $198,500 $7,089.29 *Northfield 8.75 60 $485,700 $8,095.00 The Meadows 8.46 41 $402,500 $9,817.07 Dover 8.34 58 $637,500 $10,991.38 Freehold 8.00 23 $129,600 $5,634.78 Batavia 7.83 30 $264,500 $8,816.67 Northville 7.60 23 $147,100 $6,395.65 **Monticello 7.59 37 $162,800 $4,400.00 ***Saratoga 7.50 20 $177,000 $8,850.00 Yonkers 7.29 55 $977,000 $17,763.64 Hawthorne 7.27 22 $135,400 $6,154.55 Cal Expo 7.04 21 $133,050 $6,335.71                                              *Northfield canceled live racing on Tuesday 1/30 and Wednesday 1/31 **Monticello canceled racing on Monday 1/29 ***Saratoga meet starts Saturday 2/3 and does not include normal 4-day week (All stats attained through USTA)