Single-race betting on Saturday night's Belmont Stakes at Saratoga Racecourse in upstate New York fell 20.9 percent compared to single-race betting on last year's Belmont, according to race charts. The striking decline reflects a revised post time and new policies at tracks operated by the New York Racing Association meant to restrict the play of computer-assisted wagering (CAW) groups.
Single-race bets, which include win, place, show, exacta, trifecta, and superfecta wagers, was $42.5 million, according to Saturday’s chart, an $11.3 million decline from last year’s total of $53.8 million for the single-race pools. This year’s Belmont had nine horses, compared to eight in last year’s field.
Although handle was significantly impacted by a decision by NYRA to move up the Belmont's post time by several minutes to avoid looming rainfall in the area, CAW handle on the race dropped from $8.7 million to $4.5 million, a decline of 48.3 percent, according to figures provided by NYRA on Sunday morning.
NYRA enacted the restrictions in February; they are meant to throttle down computer-assisted wagering in all the pools at its tracks with two minutes to post. The restrictions prohibit any player from submitting more than six bets per second within the last two minutes.
Late last week, NYRA officials said that betting by CAW players had dropped nearly 50 percent at its tracks since the restrictions went into effect, declining from approximately 20-22 percent of all pools at NYRA’s tracks to 12-13 percent of handle. Late odd swings caused in large part by late betting by CAW groups has become a major cause of concern for many horseplayers.
The Belmont went off at 7:01, three minutes prior to the scheduled post time of 7:04. However, most Triple Crown races do not go off at precisely the time listed for the post, and there is usually a 3-5 minute delay from the stated post time to the actual start of the race.
According to Saturday's race charts, betting on many of the races held prior to the Belmont was down by similar percentages. Comparisons between this year’s card and last year’s card is complicated in that heavy rainfall led NYRA to run two of the most prominent races on last year's Belmont Stakes card on Sunday. The rescheduling caused many of the card’s multi-race bets to be canceled, including most of those ending in the Belmont.
In total for this year’s Belmont, including multi-race wagers, betting was $50.9 million, according to the chart, compared to $55.7 million last year, when the totals did not include a handful of multi-race bets, such as the pick 3, pick 4, pick 5, and pick 6.
In the straight pools for the Belmont, betting was down 19.5 percent, declining $5.3 million. Exacta betting dropped 15.4 percent, while trifecta betting dropped 23.8 percent and superfecta betting declined 34.2 percent. CAWs often direct a large percentage of their play to the superfecta pool in fields with eight or more horses.
Betting on the other two races in the Triple Crown was also down this year, with total commingled wagering on the Kentucky Derby falling 1.8 percent and betting on the Preakness Stakes falling 8.0 percent.
For the entire 14-race card at Saratoga on Saturday, total betting was $116.1 million, up 13.9 percent over the 12-race card held last year. The $101.9 million bet on last year’s card was down 19 percent compared to the 2024 card, when betting was $125.8 million.
CAW handle for the entire card on Saturday was $11.8 million, a decline of 38 percent compared to CAW handle last year on the Belmont card of $19.1 million, according to the figures provided by NYRA. CAW players are typically most active in large pools like those provided by Triple Crown cards.
Because of the heavy rainfall last year, many of the races on the 2025 Belmont card had short fields, with 73 horses in total running in the 12 races, for an average field size of 6.1 horses per race. This year, 123 horses ran in the 14 races, for an average field size of 8.8 horses per race.
For the entire five-day Belmont Stakes Festival at Saratoga, running Wednesday through Sunday, total commingled handle was $199.9 million, a 1.1 percent gain over the weather-compromised total last year of $197.8 millions. The five-day meet posted the slight gain despite losing $17.9 million in CAW handle over the five days, according to figures provided by NYRA.
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