Last weekend at The Meadowlands, an all-time event handle record was established for the Breeders Crown held over Oct. 25-26.
The 2024 Breeders Crown’s 12 championship events over the two nights – two-year-olds on Friday and three-year-olds and older horses on Saturday – were seen by an international television audience on Fox Sports, completing a season where many of harness racing’s biggest events were broadcast to huge audiences.
“Standardbred racing’s greatest stars put on an incredible show and an international audience got to see it all on Fox Sports,” said Jason Settlemoir, Operating Officer and General Manager at Meadowlands Racetrack. “Judging by the numbers, it’s a good bet that new people are starting to watch and wager on the most popular signal in nighttime racing.”
“The Breeders Crown events at The Meadowlands were a success on every metric,” said John Campbell, Hambletonian Society Chief Executive Officer and President. “The racing was championship level throughout the weekend and that was reflected in the tremendous wagering we had on both Friday and Saturday.”
Campbell, the leading driver in Crown history with 48 victories, was recognizing the record number of dollars poured into the pools during Crown weekend.
All-source handle on the 14-race Saturday card totalled $4,356,475 USD.
Since the four races on Friday and eight on Saturday format went into existence, The Meadowlands total of $7,372,478 USD in 2021 had stood as the record. Until this year.
When adding Friday’s total wager of $3,369,424 USD to Saturday’s action, that's a new record of $7,725,899 USD, an average per race of $275,924 USD for the weekend’s 28 total dashes.
Looking only at Breeders Crown races, the numbers are more impressive. On Friday night, the four Crown events took in $1,397,037 USD, an average of $349,259 USD. Saturday’s eight Breeders Crown dashes had a handle total of $3,135,925 USD, for an average of $391,990 USD. Thus, Breeders Crown betting totalled $4,532,962 USD over the two nights, an average per race of $377,746 USD. (For perspective, if the average per race is $377,746 USD for a 14-race card, the total handle would be $5.28 million USD.)
The betting was remarkably consistent throughout, as only once did Crown wagering last weekend fail to reach $300,000 USD, while just three times it exceeded $400,000 USD.
“We commend and thank The Meadowlands for all of their effort and execution in putting on a championship weekend,” said Campbell. “Everywhere you looked, people were having fun and enjoying the very best that Standardbred racing has to offer.”
(With files from Meadowlands Racetrack)