By Dick Jerardi
When my non-horse racing friends and non-horse racing media types ask me about the state of the sport (which happens much more often than normal every spring during the Triple Crown), I tell them what has been obvious for years: It’s an event-driven sport without enough big events.
Consider the Triple Crown itself. Even with its most pressing issue (Derby winner not going to the Preakness regularly because of the two-week turnaround), horse racing’s marquee event, judging by television ratings and betting handle, is as popular as it’s ever been.
The Derby had record TV ratings this year. The Preakness viewing number was way up over last year as well.
So what about business? Well, Derby Week races at Churchill Downs attracted nearly a half billion dollars in betting action. There was a $340 million handle on Derby Day, with $225 million on the Derby itself.
Nothing else in American racing can compare to the Derby. But Preakness Day 2026, held at Laurel Park while Pimlico is being rebuilt and with the crowd held down to 4,800, accounted for $107 million in bets on the card. Last year’s Belmont Stakes Day at Saratoga got $100 million in bets.
This Saturday’s Belmont card, with the Derby winner (Golden Tempo), Derby second (Renegade), Derby fourth (Chief Wallabee) as well as the winners of the Louisiana Derby (Emerging Market) and Florida Derby (Commandment) all in the Belmont, is also going to be a home run, with last year’s Preakness winner Journalism against the nearly unbeaten Nysos in the Met Mile, the unbeaten Crude Velocity and super fast Obliteration in the Woody Stephens and a showdown in the True North between last year’s Breeders’ Cup sprint winner Bentornato and Eclipse Award winning sprinter Book’em Danno in what has to be one of the toughest Grade III stakes ever.
So, if this year’s Belmont Day card handles another $100 million or so, the three Triple Crown race days will have handled more than a half billion dollars in 2026. That’s some serious business.
Think about the boutique meets at Keeneland (spring and fall), Del Mar and Saratoga. They are also as popular as they have even been. The betting numbers reflect that.
Closer to home, consider Pennsylvania Derby Day. When it was still on Labor Day in 2009, the total handle was $1,776,494. When it was moved to later in September (farther from the Travers and closer to the Breeders’ Cup) in 2010, the day’s handle jumped to $2,295,524. When it went on local television for the first time in 2011, the handle jumped dramatically to $3,424,149.
Pennsylvania Derby Day had become an “event”. It found the perfect timing in late September. Some of the country’s best 3-year-olds headed to Parx Racing. Management and the horsemen really got behind the day. It was on television. It suddenly had juice it never had before.
When the Cotillion was added in 2012, the day’s handle jumped again to $4,361,459. It was $4,985,286 in 2013.
But it became a true “national” event in 2014 when Derby and Preakness winner California Chrome, one of the most popular horses of the 21st Century, came to Parx to run in the Pa. Derby. Fans were in places that day they had not been in years. The handle was an astonishing $9,479,358.
The handle number ticked back the following year ($5,315,131), but went right back up in 2016 ($8,900,509) when Derby winner Nyquist and Preakness winner Exaggerator ran in the Pa. Derby right after unbeaten Songbird and Kentucky Oaks winner Cathryn Sophia ran in the Cotillion.
In 2017, the handle was $7,338,424. In 2018, when horse racing legend Bob Baffert appeared at Parx with eventual Pa. Derby winner and 3-year-old champion West Coast, the handle was $8,319,280. In 2019, when the day’s broadcast was shortened for an NBC national broadcast, the handle went up slightly to $8,418,280.
After no Pa. Derby Day in 2020 because of the pandemic, the 2021 handle blew up to $13,246,651 after the racing office did a great job of putting together a nearly all stakes card and it went back on local television with a longer broadcast window. Pa. Derby Day has become recognized as the best day of September racing in America.
In 2022, the handle zoomed up again to a record $18,844,528. In 2023, it was $17,046,582. In 2024, the handle was $16,007,617, Last year, it was $17,248,080.
The combination of great racing, big fields, huge purses, some of the country’s best 3-year colts and fillies, a buy-in by everybody at Parx and a network-quality television production combined to take a sleepy non event that was lost for years on Labor Day and turn it into a major event in a sport that needed another one and could still use more.
