Thoroughbred Wagering Down $1.3 Billion

Published: January 7, 2010 10:57 am EST

As it is well known by now, the downward spiral in horse racing handle -- at least for land-based wagering facilities -- is not just a standardbred issue. The 2009 wagering numbers for the United States thoroughbred industry are in, and

they're not pretty.

Equibase recently released information regarding wagering on U.S. thoroughbred races, purses for U.S. thoroughbred races, and the amount of race dates for U.S. thoroughbred races.

The numbers state that overall wagering on the races in 2008 rang in at $13,669,477,234. The amount wagered on the races in 2009 was $12,319,129,673. The difference is a drop of $1,350,347,561, or 9.88%.

Purses were down 5.59% (from $1,158,616,930 to $1,093,875,799).

Race dates were down slightly (2.61%) from 2008 to 2009, as there were 6,093 thoroughbred cards run in 2008 compared to 5,934 in 2009.

Click here to take a look at the numbers.

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