by Paul Post

Mirroring the nation’s economic downtown, average daily attendance and all-sources handle for Belmont Park’s fall meet were down 20.3% and 8.3%, respectively, New York Racing Association announced Wednesday.

The figures come on the heels of a Saratoga summer meet where attendance and all-sources handle fell 9.8% and 10.2%, respectively.

“The decline in all-sources handle at the fall Belmont Park meet was disappointing, but consistent with national wagering trends,” said Charles Hayward, NYRA president and chief executive officer. “There is no question that the economic climate in New York and around the country has had a negative impact on our live handle as well as the New York State Off-Track Betting corporations and other simulcast customers.”

All-sources handle on NYRA races at Belmont was $356.3-million, versus the 2007 figure of $346.5-million, for an increase of 2.8%. But the 2008 meet included four more days than 2007, so there was actually an 8.3% decline in the equivalent daily average all-sources handle figure.

The economic downturn impacted attendance as well. Belmont’s 37-day meet attracted 147,515 patrons, compared with 165,045 who attended last fall’s 33-day meet, for a decline of 10.6%. Daily average attendance declined by 20.3 percent, dropping from 5,001 to 3,987.

Total purses rose 3.4%, from $20.5-million to $21.2-million. Factoring in the four additional days of the 2008 season, average daily purses actually dropped from $622,116 to $574,036, or 7.7%, consistent with the handle decline.

Gary Contessa was the leading trainer for the Belmont meet with 16 wins, while Edgar Prado took the jockey title with 43 victories.

NYRA is currently conducting racing at Aqueduct in Queens, New York, where state leaders recently approved the selection of a gaming operator—Buffalo-based Delaware North Companies—to run that track’s 4,500-machine video lottery terminal facility. Construction is expected to begin in early January.

Paul Post is a New York-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent