Saratoga business picks up

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – All-sources handle bounced back from last week but still remains down, while ontrack handle remains flat through the first 16 days, or 40 percent, of the Saratoga meet when compared to last year.

After 16 days, all-sources handle is $218,599,782, down 6.5 percent compared to $233,837,982 through the same period last year. After the first 10 days of the meet, all-sources handle had been down 9.5 percent.

Ontrack handle, down less than 1 percent through the first 10 days, is now up less than 1 percent at $54,954,653, compared to $54,607,832 last summer.

Reported attendance is 344,946, up 11 percent from last year’s figure of 310,318. Though the New York Racing Association is not counting spinners – people who buy more than one admission to get a promotional item – it is counting season passes sold in its daily count whether or not the season-pass holder attends. NYRA has sold approximately 6,400 season passes for this year’s Saratoga meet.

There have been five fewer races run so far at this year’s meet, including one fewer on Saturday’s Whitney card when all-sources handle was $27.5 million, up $2.2 million over the same day last year.

There have been 66 races run on the turf and 15 taken off this summer, compared to 87 on and only two off through the same period last year.