Kentucky Oaks betting gives April handle a boost

Bolstered by a rare April running of the Kentucky Oaks, total handle on U.S. Thoroughbred races in April of this year was $1.10 billion, according to figures released on Wednesday by Equibase, an amount that compared favorably to the same month two years ago, prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

While handle comparisons are typically made by comparing the same months in consecutive years, a comparison between April of 2021 and the same month last year is almost entirely meaningless. In April of last year, only a handful of tracks were conducting racing – there were a total of 85 races dates in the month, compared to 279 this April – and those tracks that were running prohibited spectators.

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Compared to the same month in 2019, this April’s handle was up 30.4 percent, from $846.0 million two years ago to the $1.10 billion figure this year, despite racetracks running nearly 200 fewer races in the month this year. However, the Kentucky Oaks is rarely run in April, and handle on the entire April 30 card was $54.3 million, a strong figure, but not nearly enough to make up the entire difference.

On average, each race held in April this year generated $454,890 in bets, compared to per-race average of $323,873 in April of 2019, a difference of 40.5 percent. U.S. racetracks held 2,425 races in April of this year, compared to 2,612 races in 2019. Almost all racetracks currently operating in the U.S. are limiting attendance.

For the first four months of 2021, total betting is up 14.4 percent compared to the first four months of 2019. The number of races run in the first four months of the year was 9,127, a 7.8 percent decline compared to the 9,902 races run in the first four months of 2019.

Wagering figures were surprisingly resilient during the pandemic, and some months late in 2020 posted double-digit gains in total handle when compared to the same months in 2019. In April, many Americans received tax refunds and another round of stimulus checks, at a maximum of $1,400 per individual. There were eight weekend dates in both months.

Total purses in April of 2021 compared to the same month in 2019 were up 4.3 percent. The average field size in April of 2021 was 7.44, a slight dip from the 7.55 field size number from the same month in 2019.