Saratoga business up for first 10 days

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Business is up slightly at the current Saratoga meet when compared with the first 10 days of the 2010 season.

Attendance for the first 10 days was 201,400, up 1.3 percent from 198,857 last year. That included a Sunday giveaway announced crowd of 40,974 compared with a Thursday giveaway crowd of 29,697 during the same 10-day span in 2010.

Ontrack handle totaled $27,728,174, up 4.5 percent from $26,531,605 last year. All-sources handle, which includes wagers on Saratoga from simulcast outlets as well as ontrack, was $133,920,502, up 1.6 percent from $131,860,879 in 2010.

There have been two more races run (99 to 97) and 15 more betting interests (846 to 831) through the first 10 days at this meet as compared with last year. There have been 44 turf races compared with 41 in 2010.