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Keeneland Handle a Sign of the Times

Churchill Downs opens its Spring Meet today marking the official start of Derby Week. It also means that the Spring Meet at Keeneland, that historic and tradition bound track in the little city to the west of here has ended. It's an appropriate time then to take a look at the meet's handle and attendance to see what effect the economy has had.

It's easy to see that the recession has hit hard in Central Kentucky even though most of the plants there are still operating relatively normally, including Toyota's main North American assembly plant in Georgetown. While the meet boasted near record attendance, the handle was down sharply. The total attendance of 240,755 was the third-highest in track history, down 1.1 percent from 243,606 last year. The 16,050 average daily crowd was up 5.4 percent from last year and was the second-highest in Keeneland history.

However, the wagering figures were not so bright. Preliminary results showed a 19.3 percent drop in all sources handle to $117 million, with a 9.8 percent decline to $19.2 million in on-track handle for Keeneland's races. This was the first time that Keeneland races were on all four major off-track wagering outlets and the handle was still down precipitously. That is not a good omen for racing. If the numbers carry forward to Churchill Downs' spring meet, then the industry should reexamine its marketing strategies because they are apparently not working too well in this economic climate.

Full post as published by Sports Biz on April 25, 2009 (boomark / email).