When the crown was officially handed over is unknown, but there is no question that the current King of New York harness racing, in terms of handle, is Saratoga Raceway. An analysis of daily wagering totals (using ustrotting.com as the source) at the only three New York tracks racing regularly in February shows Saratoga as the leader not just in total handle but also by a fair margin in average handle per race. Bettors poured over $9.65 million into the pools during February over 15 cards (180 races) at Saratoga, substantially more than the nearly $8.11 million (18 cards, 177 races) bet on Yonkers Raceway or the almost $6.35 million (15 programs, 140 races) at Monticello Raceway. Breaking the numbers down to average handle per race, Saratoga has a healthy advantage with $53,617, far ahead of Yonkers ($45,818) and Monticello ($45,341). One has to wonder how Saratoga went from worst to first over the last year. During February 2025 the track handled just over $5.24 million (12 cards, 147 races) and averaged a meager $35,674 per race. The highest single card handle in February was $666,267. They eclipsed that mark seven times by March 1, 2026! Year over year Saratoga has seen an amazing 50% increase in handle per race. In a time when industry handle has been in a tailspin and only a track or two showed an increase in 2025, how did Saratoga pull off this wagering comeback? According to John Matarazzo, Director of Racing Operations at Saratoga Casino Hotel, the handle bump has emanated from several sources, including: -Changing the betting format (adding a second Pick 5 and including Pick 4 carryovers) and increasing minimums (triple from 50 cents to $1, superfecta from 10 cents to 20 cents, late double from $1 to $3). - Marketing-driven live product promotions (bonuses, handicapping contests) for customers through their ADW – SaratogaBets.com. -New agreements with a few Computer Assisted Wagering groups. -Revised racing schedule. "We're always trying things in the harness industry and it is a bit of a battle," said Matarazzo. "It's hard to drive people to the racetrack and all of the changes we've made have helped us see the handle increases across the board. "The increase in the pool sizes, I think, is drawing more people to our product. And that was the idea. If we can get our pools to be bigger, we can get more people interested in our product. So all the best stuff we're doing combined with a few, and it's just a few of the CAWs, not a lot of them, some creative agreements with them, those are fueling all the increases." ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter Saratoga sends its signal out to 400 outlets all over the world, and Matarazzo was quick to credit his staff for putting out the best product possible and positioning it properly to ensure success. "PJ [Racing Secretary Peter Iovino] has done a great job of getting good stables and making sure our races have full fields," said Matarazzo, who also credited Racing Development Simulcast Manager Alex Savage for "driving a lot of our initiatives with SaratogaBets and with our simulcasting partners." An interesting statistic from this February is the head-to-head match-up between Saratoga and Monticello. The two tracks both operate during the afternoon (12:00 P.M. and 12:10 P.M. first-race post times, respectively) and raced on seven common dates during the month. Saratoga had a higher average handle per race three times and Monticello four. That tells us that perhaps Saratoga's success comes from positioning as much as anything else. "Monticello, to their credit, they built a niche in matinee racing years ago," said Matarazzo. "People got used to their product and they did really well in that spot. We moved into that spot; I'm not sure even how many years ago we did it, and we took a chunk of their business. Then other people moved in when we moved in and took a chunk of our business. So, you're right, when Monticello and us run, we kind of split the money." Saratoga went from a Sunday to Wednesday schedule in 2025 to a Saturday to Tuesday schedule in 2026. Handle on Wednesday in 2025 averaged $30,163 per race, while Saturdays this year have vaulted to $52,872, a 75% increase. "I wasn't sure whether it would work," said Matarazzo. "We always raced on Saturday night. In 2025, we decided to run an experiment because we're always trying things. Let's get off of Saturday night and move to a weekday afternoon because it costs us a little more money to run at night. We've got to deal with our lights and stuff like that. And the horsemen didn't like Saturday nights. So I said, maybe we could build some off-track money if we run on a Wednesday afternoon instead of the Saturday night. "This year, we decided to get back on to Saturdays only to try matinee programs and see if there was any interest there. And it's going okay. I mean, it's still early, but it's going good. We'll see how it plays out." Saratoga currently has no competition on Sundays as the only harness track racing in the country. On Saturday's they go up against Pocono Downs (1 P.M. post), beating them by over $300,000 in handle despite one less race on February 28. A side note to the handle surge at Saratoga is that the track set a new single-card record for handle on March 1 of $890,024. The previous top was reached just a month earlier on February 1 when $855,412 was wagered. Interestingly, Monticello ($512,120) and Yonkers ($696,725) both hit their February highs on their first program of the month. "Pleasantly surprised," said Matarazzo about the new handle record. "It's very encouraging. It's very encouraging to our horsemen to see the interest in our product. We're going to keep on trying things just because we're in a very competitive environment now. Legalizing sports betting in New York really had an impact on our horse betting. It's a similar demographic, and now we also have sports betting platforms that take bets on racing. So that didn't help us either." The model is changing in terms of measuring the success of racetracks. There was once a time when the "butts in seats" philosophy was the true indicator. Now, tracks must embrace online outlets to engage their customers. "A lot of people just go by on-track handle and attendance. I don't think that's a fair measuring stick. I really don't," said Matarazzo. "I hate to use this analogy because I don't know if it's accurate, but it's like judging whether or not movies are successful by whether or not people are in the movie theater. The movie industry is still very vibrant, but it's not necessarily judged by how many people go into the movie theater to watch a movie." Matarazzo is cognizant that the small sample size hardly indicates a trend that will continue well into the future. He also understands that competition is thin during the winter months and Saratoga will have a harder time maintaining its handle edge as tracks open around the country and Yonkers gets its stakes schedule underway. "It's hard to say because you don't know what else is going to happen around you," said Matarazzo about the possibility of continuing the good handle run. "I don't know what the other tracks are going to do. I'm not the only person sitting here trying to figure out how to drive business. Every racetrack operator is doing it and I don't have a crystal ball. I don't know if it's going to continue to grow. "I'm hopeful that our pool sizes encourage more people to bet. And right now, when I look at our charts, I see handle increases from the vast majority of our outlets, not just from the CAW groups. So that is very encouraging to me." While Matarazzo is in good company in terms of his inability to predict the future, it is clear that Saratoga has risen to be the most viable wagering track in New York from a handle standpoint. Whether Yonkers Raceway can make a dent in that gap is unknown, but the numbers say for the time being Saratoga is King.