May handle up at California tracks

Handle figures at California tracks rose in May compared with May 2014, leaving handle for the year well above last year’s figures, according to figures presented at Thursday’s California Horse Racing Board meeting by executive director Rick Baedeker.

Handle for Thoroughbred programs at Golden Gate Fields and Santa Anita was $284,593,266, a gain of 8 percent. Handle for evening programs at Cal-Expo harness races and the mixed Quarter Horse and lower-level Thoroughbred meeting at Los Alamitos rose 10 percent to $31,814,019. Overall, handle for the month was $316.4 million, a gain of 8 percent.

There was one additional Thoroughbred program at Santa Anita this May than in May 2014. For the evening programs, there was one additional program at Los Alamitos and one fewer at Cal-Expo.

“We had a great Kentucky Derby and Preakness, and we did last year, too, with California Chrome,” Baedeker said.

For the year, overall handle in the state reached $1,310,811,694, a gain of 3 percent over the first five months of 2014. The Thoroughbred tracks handled $1,171,672,779, a gain of 2.5 percent, while the evening programs handled $139,185,915 a gain of 10 percent.