Thoroughbred handle ticked down in June

Wagering handle and the number of races run in the U.S. were down marginally during both the second quarter of 2022 and in June, although purse payouts were up double digits when compared to the same time frames of 2021.

According to figures released Tuesday by Equibase, gross handle on U.S. races from April 1 through June 30 was $3,468,677,261, down 1.2 percent from the same period in 2021. Likewise, handle during the month of June was $974.9 million, down 1.77 percent from June 2021.

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Those figures roughly correspond with the numbers of races run and average field size. There were 9,102 races run during the second quarter of 2022, virtually identical to the 9,090 races run in the second quarter of 2021 – but field size averaged 7.02 starters per race in 2022 (versus 7.16 in 2021) during those same time frames. Similarly, field size averaged 6.93 from the 3,355 races run this June, as compared to 6.99 field size and 3,413 races in June 2021.

Purses continued their ascent in June and in the second quarter. Nearly $344 million was paid in purses during the second quarter of 2022, an increase of 14.57 percent over the same period last year ($300.1 million). For the month of June, a total of $115,369,860 was paid this year versus nearly $103.8 million last year, an increase of 11.17 percent.

For the first six months of 2022, handle of $6.26 billion is virtually the same as 2021, with both figures easily surpassing what was bet during the first halves of both 2019 and 2020.