Kentucky Derby 2022 sets handle record on race and card
Handle on Saturday’s Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs set a record, according to race charts, as the track and the race returned to normalcy after two years of disruptions brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
Handle on the Derby, including all multi-race bets that ended in the race, was $168.8 million, up 9.9 percent compared to handle on the race last year and up 5.8 percent over the record set in 2019, according to the charts. (Daily Racing Form does not include bets made in parimutuel future wagers that Churchill holds in the run-up to the Derby.)
The record was set on a day in which Churchill opened its gates wide for the first time since 2019 due to the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, with 147,294 in attendance.
Handle also set a record for the entire 14-race card at Churchill on Saturday, with a total of $263.2 million bet, up 4.9 percent over the record set in 2019, according to charts. The total was up 13.9 percent compared to the total for a 14-race card last year.
In a press release, Churchill said that bettors in Japan wagered $8.3 million on the Derby in a separate pool, driving the record betting even higher. Japan’s racing authority only allows betting on a limited number of simulcasts from foreign jurisdictions each year, dependent on whether a Japanese runner is in the race. This year, that was Crown Pride.
On Friday, total handle for the 13-race Kentucky Oaks card also was a record, at $74.6 million. Combined, bettors wagered a total of $337.8 million on the two cards. Betting on the Kentucky Oaks itself also set a record, at $24.3 million.
For the Derby, betting was up in all pools with the exception of two pick six wagers that ended in the Derby, one that used consecutive races on Saturday and one that used the Oaks on Friday as part of its multi-race sequence. Handle on both of those bets may have been diluted by the addition of a pick three and a pick five this year.
This year’s Derby had 20 runners, compared to 19 last year and 19 in the 2019 running.
Favoritism in the race went to Epicenter, who was helped along to that distinction by a $1.5 million win bet made approximately 15 minutes prior to post by Jim McIngvale, a horse owner, who uses big bets in the Derby as a hedge against a Derby-related promotion at his furniture stores in Texas. Epicenter went off at 4.10-1, while the second choice, Taiba, went off at 5.80-1, and the third choice, Zandon, went off at 6.10-1.
Handle in the straight pools was up 8.9 percent to $75,600,869, a record for the race. Handle in the exacta, trifecta, and superfecta pools also set records.
This year’s Derby was won by Rich Strike, who got into the race Friday after the scratch of Ethereal Road. He paid $163.60 to win, the second-highest win payout in Derby history, and was followed to the line by Epicenter and Zandon.
While the payouts in the exacta, trifecta, and superfecta pools were all gaudy – $4,101.20 for the $2 exacta, $14,870.70 for the $1 trifecta, and $321,500.10 for the $1 superfecta – they were nowhere near the records, all set in 2005, when Giacomo won at 50-1 and was followed home by Closing Argument (71.60-1) and Afleet Alex (9-2), the second choice. That year, the $2 exacta paid $9,814.80, the $2 trifecta paid $133,134.80, and the $1 superfecta paid $864,253.