Opening-day handle drops 30%, but Santa Anita has a reason

Opening-day handle Tuesday at Santa Anita totaled $18,302,551, down 30 percent from last year, although track management accentuated positives in the number while saying the drop had a lot to do with the day of the week.

“With a jockeys room full of top talent and world-class racing the order of the day, Santa Anita’s classic-meet opener on Tuesday proved a rousing success,” a racecourse news release said. “An on-track crowd of 37,143 contributed to a robust all-sources handle of $18.3 million, which rates as the best handle ever among a total of 17 opening dates conducted on a Tuesday.”

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That figure, however, represented a reversal of the trend that brought the handle to a record $26,315,016 last year, when the traditional Dec. 26 opener fell on a Monday.

“From a business standpoint, opening on a Tuesday is always a challenge, because so many people are back to work,” Santa Anita senior vice president and general manager Nate Newby said in the news release.

To that end, the handle was the lowest since the $17,279,162 total in 2017, the last time opening day fell on Tuesday.

Newby also underscored positives on the track.

“We want to sincerely thank our fans for their tremendous support and our horsemen, trainers, jockeys and owners, for putting on a magnificent show today. From start to finish, we had great, safe racing, on both turf and dirt,” he said. “We had tight finishes and great competition.”

The announced attendance represented a 10 percent decline from last year, when 41,446 people were said to have shown up at Santa Anita.