Wood Day handle dips 8 percent
All-sources handle for Saturday’s Wood Memorial card at Aqueduct was $15,069,036, down 8.1 percent from the $16,404,782 handled on Wood Day 2018.
Ontrack handle Saturday was $2,020,189, down 2.6 percent from last year’s figure of $2,074,391.
Each card had 11 races, though there was only one turf race this year whereas there were two in 2018.
There were 83 betting interests on Saturday’s card - including a four-horse Bay Shore Stakes - compared to 86 betting interests in 2018.
This was in sharp contrast to business on Gotham Day last month, which was up 36 percent year over year. On Gotham Day, Aqueduct conducted one more race than the previous year and Santa Anita did not conduct a racing card.
* A previous version of this story misstated the all-sources handle for Wood Day. The figure did not include $250,763 handled on the Cross-Country pick 5, which was not reflected in the Equibase charts.