Horseshoe Indianapolis bucks trend; total handle up 23 percent

Total handle and average race handle on Thoroughbred races held at the recently completed meet at Horseshoe Indianapolis in Shelbyville, Ind., increased this year by more than 20 percent, according to figures compiled by Daily Racing Form from Equibase charts.

Total handle increased 23.6 percent, from $206.72 million last year to $255.49 million this year, for the same number of live racing days, 116, according to the figures. Average race handle jumped 21.3 percent, from $214,213 last year to $259,908 this year, on a slightly higher number of total Thoroughbred races.

The increase in handle at Horseshoe stands out during a weak year for horse-race betting. Nationally, betting on Thoroughbred races through the first 10 months of the year is down 4.7 percent on a 4.8 percent drop in races, and several major race meets, particularly in New York, have seen significant declines in handle this year.

Horseshoe ran on a Monday-through-Thursday schedule for most of the meet, and it added Saturdays during the summer. That schedule is nearly identical to last year’s.

Eric Halstrom, the vice president and general manager of racing at Horseshoe, noted that field size during the meet was roughly eight horses per race, a slight increase over last year. He also said that Horseshoe was able to run 248 races on the turf this year, up substantially from the 208 turf races held last year.

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Between the 2022 and 2023 meets, Horseshoe hired a turf superintendent, Michael DePew, “whose only job was to grow grass,” Halstrom said. In addition, Halstrom and the track’s racing director, Chris Polzin, visited nine tracks prior to the 2023 meet to gain insight into attracting competitive fields, he said.

“I like to think the end result was a product of at least a little work,” Halstrom said.

Horseshoe will probably drop some of its Saturday cards next year and replace them with weekdays, Halstrom said, because the track’s simulcast signal “gets overwhelmed” in the competition on Saturdays. Halstrom also said that the track’s separate-pool handle from foreign jurisdictions was up 30 to 40 percent this year, largely by capitalizing on soft spots in the international simulcast market as well. (Those figures are not reflected in the handle figures reported above.)

“We’re going to keep fighting hard for whatever simulcast share is out there,” Halstrom said.

The only soft spot in the 2023 meet was the track’s average purse, which declined slightly, from $33,198 last year to $32,557 this year. Purses at Horseshoe are subsidized by casino operations in the state.

Halstrom said that purses were stagnant, in large part, because of the track’s dues assessment for the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, which started operations in 2022 and launched its anti-doping and medication control program in May of this year. The bill this year was $2.3 million, Halstrom said, and horsemen elected to use purse funds to pay their half of the assessment.

“I’m not saying that as a political statement about HISA,” Halstrom said. “That’s just the reality. We’re trying to be careful going forward so that we aren’t getting surprised by it.”

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