Business a Mixed Bag on BC Friday

OK - More people attended than last year, but bet less, even with an extra race this year. Can everyone spell "Comps" LOL

Business a Mixed Bag on Breeders’ Cup Friday
by Ray Paulick

Last year Breeders’ Cup officials could blame Sandy, the storm that hit the Eastern Seaboard and disrupted the lives of tens of millions of people days before the two-day racing festival at Santa Anita Park Nov. 2-3. Two-day handle on Breeders’ Cup races fell by 9.9% from the previous year, when the event was held at Churchill Downs. More troubling was the fact that wagering on 15 Breeders’ Cup races over two days in 2012 was lower than it was on eight races in 2006, the last time it was a one-day event.

Preliminary results from the opening Friday card of the 2013 Breeders’ Cup are not that encouraging. Total handle for five Breeders’ Cup races was $35,549,196, down 8.7 percent from $38,936,750 when six Breeders’ Cup races were contested on Friday. (The Juvenile Sprint was eliminated from the program in 2013.) Average bet per Breeders’ Cup race was up by 9.5 percent from 2012.

Total handle for Friday’s 11-race card was $51,521,146, up 8 percent from the 2012 figure of $47,586,765 for 10 races. The average wagered per race was 1.6 percent lower in 2013 than in 2012.

Complaints about the dirt track condition – which horseplayers, trainers and jockeys said was decidedly biased in favor of horses that were on or close to the early lead – may have prompted some players to back off on their bets. In the six main track races for Thoroughbreds (an Arabian race closed the card), five of the winners were either on the lead throughout or no further than 1 1/2 lengths back. Only in the 1 3/4-mile Marathon did a horse close from more than 1 1/2 lengths back to win. Fields were spread out as horses struggled down the stretch in slow final quarter-mile clockings. Months of preparation by trainers and weeks of studying form by horseplayers were compromised.

After favored Verrazano was defeated by frontrunning Goldencents in the Dirt Mile (after fractions of :22.12, :44.75, 1:08.64 and 1:21.62 before a final clocking of 1:35.12), trainer Todd Pletcher said: “This track is so speed favoring and everyone is just send, send, send. It changes everything.”

A crowd of 35,833 was on hand for this first day of the 30th Breeders’ Cup. The attendance figure represented a 3.5 percent increase over the 2012 Friday attendance at Santa Anita of 34,619. On-track handle declined, however, from $7,298,175 in 2012 to $7,205,145 despite the additional race.

Two horses were vanned off after dirt races. Centralintelligence was eased after he fractured his cannon bone in the Dirt Mile and So Big Is Better pulled up with an undetermined injury after winning the President of the United Arab Emirates Cup Invitational for Arabians.

“We’re off to a very solid start for what promises to be an excellent weekend of world class racing and we are encouraged by the response of the fans both here and around the country,” said Breeders’ Cup President and CEO Craig Fravel.

Total handle – $51,521,146 ($48,997,009 in 2012)
On-track handle – $7,205,145 ($7,298,175 in 2012)