Total betting on the Belmont Stakes on Saturday afternoon was $60.46 million, a 13.6 percent increase over handle the last time the race was held in its traditional place on the Triple Crown calendar in 2019, according to the New York Racing Association.
Daily Racing Form reported Saturday night that handle on the Belmont was $50.67 million, citing the chart of the race produced by Equibase, the official data supplier of U.S. Thoroughbred racing that is co-owned by racetracks and The Jockey Club. On Sunday morning, officials at Belmont provided several documents produced internally and externally showing massive discrepancies in the Equibase data in the win, place, show, exacta, trifecta, and superfecta pools accounting for nearly $10 million in additional betting.
The officials also said that Equibase would be issuing a corrected chart Sunday.
The new number is a significant increase over the 2019 Belmont, at a time when handle on U.S. Thoroughbred racing has been enjoying a strong period of growth, not just in gross handle, but in per-race handle. In April, gross handle was up 30.4 percent, while in May, gross handle was up 8.8 percent.
This year’s Belmont field had eight horses, compared to 10 horses in 2019. Betting was up 27.2 percent in the win, place, and show pools compared to 2019, while handle in the exacta pool was up 3.3 percent; handle in the trifecta pool was up 4.8 percent; and superfecta handle was up 8.2 percent. Handle on the race includes several wagers that linked races on Friday to races on Saturday.
Attendance at this year’s Belmont was 11,238, a cap put in place due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions in New York.
Including the amended Belmont figures, total betting for the entire 13-race card on Saturday was $112.7 million, a record for a non-Triple Crown Belmont card, according to NYRA. This year’s card had 107 total runners, compared to 102 runners in 2019.
The Belmont this year did not include the nominal Kentucky Derby winner, Medina Spirit, who faces disqualification from the Derby due to a post-race positive for the regulated anti-inflammatory medication betamethasone. Medina Spirit’s trainer, Bob Baffert, has been temporarily banned by Belmont’s operator, the New York Racing Association, due to the positive test.
The Derby favorite, Essential Quality, was the favorite in the Belmont at 6-5, and the Preakness winner, Rombauer, went off the fourth choice, at 5-70-1. Essential Quality won while Rombauer was third.
Last year, the Belmont was held in June as the first leg of the Triple Crown and run at the distance of 1 1/8 miles. Handle on the race last year was $34.1 million.
