All-sources single-race betting on the Belmont Stakes on Saturday at Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York was up 5 percent compared to betting in the same pools last year, according to charts of the races.
Betting in the win, place, show, exacta, trifecta, and superfecta pools this year was $53.77 million, according to the chart of the race, compared to $51.19 million last year. This year’s Belmont had eight horses, while last year’s Belmont, also at Saratoga, had a nine-horse field.
Handle in the single-race pools was the only meaningful comparison to be made between the two races due to a decision by Saratoga’s operator, the New York Racing Association, to move two turf races originally scheduled to be run as the ninth and 12th races, to the Sunday card due to heavy rains that fell overnight. The decision led to the cancellation of a handful of multi-leg wagers that ended in the Belmont, as well as other multi-leg bets earlier in the card.
Handle on the Belmont Stakes, including all wagers ending in the race, was $60.91 million last year, compared to $55.46 million this year, a decline of 8.94 percent. Among the bets canceled this year were the pick four, pick five, and pick six starting earlier in the card. A pick five and a pick six, which included several races on the Friday card, paid out to all ticket holders who had the winners on Friday.
Total handle in the multi-race bets ending in the Belmont last year was $9.71 million, compared to $1.84 million this year. The loss of the two races – the Grade 1 Jaipur and the Grade 1 Manhattan – reduced a 14-race card to a 12-race card. Other turf races scheduled for the card were moved to the dirt and had a heavy number of scratches. This year’s card had 73 runners, including a three-horse field and a four-horse field, compared to 110 runners last year.
Compared to last year’s 13-race card, total handle on the 12-race card this year, including all bets linked to Saturday’s races, declined 19 percent from $125.75 million last year to $101.86 million this year.
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