Indiana Grand showed huge gains at 2020 meet

Generally speaking, 2020 has been an awful year, but not for Indiana Grand. The Indianapolis-area racetrack posted massive handle gains during a 96-day meet that concluded Nov. 18.

COVID-19 delayed the start of the Indiana Grand season, which began in mid-June, and permitted the track to race only 96 programs this season, yet gross handle for the year was up 24.3 percent, to $198,960,722, compared to the 120-day 2019 season.

Average handle increased even more sharply compared to 2019. Average daily handle rose 39.4 percent to $2,072,507, average handle per race went up 33.4 percent to $201,174, and average handle per starter was up 32.1 percent to $24,273.

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Indiana Grand hosted 989 races this season compared to 1,125 in 2019. Starters per race held steady at 8.13. Most cards are mixed Thoroughbred and Quarter Horses (with a strong emphasis on Thoroughbreds), while four entire cards this season had only Quarter Horse races. There were 175 Quarter Horse races during the 2020 meet and 814 Thoroughbred races. Quarter Horse races averaged 9.21 starters.

The track set a single-card handle record on the July 8 Indiana Derby program when $5,979,952 was wagered on 12 races.

Shedaresthedevil won the Indiana Oaks and went on to beat Swiss Skydiver and capture the Kentucky Oaks.

Indiana Grand veteran DeShawn Parker won his first riding title at the track, booting home 106 winners, six more than Fernando de la Cruz’s second-best total. Genaro Garcia was leading trainer with 43 wins and, racing as Southwest Racing Stable, partnered with Steve Lewis to rank as leading owner with 19 winners.