Short field, heavy favorite causes dip in Travers handle

A short field featuring an overwhelming favorite in Saturday’s Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course cost the New York Racing Association dearly in handle, with betting on the Travers falling 47.5 percent compared to last year’s race, according to charts of the races.

Handle on the Travers itself, including all multi-race bets ending in the race, was $9.6 million, according to the charts, well below last year’s total of $18.3 million.

Besides having the same name, the Travers edition this year could not have been any more different than last year, when Thorpedo Anna, Fierceness, Sierra Leone, and Dornoch led a highly competitive field of eight runners. This year, Sovereignty, the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner, went off at 3-10 in an overmatched five-horse field and ran like it, winning the race by 10 lengths.

:: Bet Smarter at Saratoga. Unlock DRF data and expert analysis all meet long. Save with a Saratoga Handicapping Package from DRF.
Betting in the straight pools was down 50 percent compared to last year, while exacta betting was down 51 percent.

Overall, handle on the 14-race card on Saturday was $54.3 million, down 13.8 percent compared to last year’s record handle of $63.0 million. The decline was almost exactly equal to the loss in handle for the Travers Stakes.

The $54.3 million total was the third-highest for a Travers card, according to NYRA, behind last year’s record and the $55.6 million total in 2022, when the card had 13 races.

Paid attendance on Saturday was 48,255, according to NYRA.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.