SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - All-sources handle for the four-day July Fourth Racing Festival at Saratoga was $83,634,479, a 121 percent increase over the handle of $37,842,226 during the corresponding four days held at Aqueduct last year. There were 44 races run at Saratoga over the four days, including a 12-race card on Saturday that handled $26,021,891. Sunday’s 10-race card, with no stakes race, handled $17,679,036. Last year, at Aqueduct, there were 38 races run over the four days July 4-7. Total paid attendance over the four days at Saratoga was 52,156, even though Sunday’s crowd was 9,284. “The numbers are essentially what we expected,” NYRA president and CEO Dave O’Rourke said. “Hats off to the events group, I think they really created a cool atmosphere. There were some cool promotions, like the $1 hot dogs, petting zoo, ice cream-eating contest. We’re working on kind of the family-centric aspect of Saratoga.” O’Rourke said there will be other family-centric themed promotions planned for the traditional 40-day Saratoga meet that begins on Thursday and runs through Labor Day. “We’re looking at those days outside of the Fridays and Saturdays and how we work with them and have cool little events,” O’Rourke said. “The team’s hitting the ground running early this year on that. I was happy and …. thank you for the weather.” Racing for the July Fourth Racing Festival was conducted under dry conditions. In fact, this was the first weekend since mid-November in the Capital Region that there wasn’t measurable precipitation on at least one of the two weekend days. O’Rourke said no decision has been made on whether the July Fourth Racing Festival will be held again here in 2026. Next year, Labor Day is as late as possible, Sept. 7, meaning opening day for the traditional 40-day meet would be July 16. So, coming here for July 4 would essentially mean adding two weeks, or weekends, to the meet, as opposed to one, as was the case this year. Technically, the July Fourth Racing Festival was part of the 37-day Belmont at Aqueduct spring/summer meet. For record-keeping purposes, Chad Brown was the leading trainer with 27 wins, three more than Linda Rice, who won two races on Sunday. Flavien Prat was the leading rider with 43 wins, nine more than Irad Ortiz Jr. For Prat, who won five races on Saturday’s card, it was his first riding title at a New York Racing Association track. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.