On Saturday, Gulfstream Park and Tampa Bay Downs both
had their biggest all-sources handle days of their 2016-2017 race meets.
Gulfstream had all-sources handle (total handle) of $14,309,524 for twelve races. That was
Saturday’s largest all-sources handle among North American thoroughbred tracks.
Tampa Bay’s all-sources handle was $6,217,491 for
eleven races.
Both Florida tracks had multiple stakes races, along
with warm and dry weather. They ran a
combined 23 races, with ten on turf. Seven of the turf races were at
Gulfstream.
As always, that combination attracted considerable
attention among simulcast and Advance Deposit Wagering bettors as well as from
fans at Gulfstream in Hallandale Beach and at Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar.
HorseRacingFLA’s
review of Equibase charts shows that Gulfstream’s previous best handle for its
current championship meet was $13,959,575 for twelve races on Saturday, Jan.
14.
Our research indicates that Gulfstream is on pace to
surpass the $9.5 million in daily average all-sources handle that it posted in
its 2015-2016 championship meet. That
was an all-time record for any Gulfstream meet.
One downside number from Saturday was that Gulfstream
had 95 starters for its 12 races. That was an average of 7.9 horses per race,
which is relatively low for Gulfstream especially on a Saturday.
A main reason for Saturday’s low average was that
there were only 34 starters in the five Sunshine Millions stakes races, which
are restricted to Florida-breds.
On last year’s Sunshine Millions day, Saturday Jan.
16, Gulfstream had twelve races and all-sources handle of $13,403,868. There
were 115 starters, for an average of 9.6 per race.
On that day, there were six Sunshine Millions races
that had a combined 54 starters. Those
six races had total purse money of $1,050,000.
This year’s five Sunshine Millions races had total
purses of $600,000. The lower purses
were no doubt among reasons that there were fewer entries and thus fewer
starters than in 2016.
The total was originally scheduled to be $900,000. But
Gulfstream reduced those purses after the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and
Owners’ Association decided not to contribute money for this year’s Sunshine
Millions purses.
The Florida TBOA and the Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent
and Protective Association are involved in a dispute over administration of
Florida-bred stakes that are run at Gulfstream.
Gulfstream president Tim Ritvo said recently that
Gulfstream is hopeful that the breeders and the horsemen will soon agree to
provide their annual money for purses for this year’s Florida Sire Stakes
series and other Florida-bred races at Gulfstream.
On Saturday, Tampa Bay had 102 starters for eleven
races. That is an average of 9.3 per race.
Its total handle of $6,217,491 included on-track
handle of $387,158 from a crowd of 4,202.
The Oldsmar track’s previous best all-sources handle
for the current meet was $5,296,090 for ten races on Dec. 31.
Among other major tracks on Saturday:
*Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., had all-sources handle of $8,759,522 for nine races. There were 61 starters (average of 6.8) on a clear day with temperatures in the high 50s.
*Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., had all-sources handle of $8,759,522 for nine races. There were 61 starters (average of 6.8) on a clear day with temperatures in the high 50s.
*Aqueduct in Ozone Park, N.Y., had all-sources handle of $8,180,936 for nine races. There were 65 starters (average of 7.2) on a cloudy day with temperatures in the high 40s.
--Jim Freer and Barry Unterbrink
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HorseRacing FLA staff