All Over Albany

The 2011 Saratoga racing season, by the numbers

The 2011 racing season at the Saratoga Race Course ended Monday. Here are the final numbers from NYRA:

Total attendance: 871,772
That's down less than one percent from last year, but this year's meet included only 39 days (instead of 40) because of the Irene-canceled day. (This number includes people who entered multiple times in order to score giveaways.)

Average daily attendance: 22,353
Up almost 2 percent from last year.

Amount bet at The Track: $121,101,664
The on track "handle" was up 5.6 percent from last year.

Daily average bet at Track: $3,105,171
Up more than 8 percent from last year.

Amount bet, all sources: $526,251,818
This is amount that was bet on Saratoga races both at the Track and from simulcast locations all over the nation. It was down 4.6 percent from last year. (But, you know, still half a billion dollars.)

Daily amount bet, all sources: $13,493,636
Down a little more than 2 percent from last year.

Number of races run: 397
That's up two from last year, despite one less day of racing.

Most races won by an owner: 15
Mike Repole, with $1,485,280 in purse money. Win total represents 3.7 of the races run this season. He was the top owner last year, too.

Most winners from one trainer: 38
Todd Pletcher. Win total represents 9.6 percent of the races run this season. He was the top trainer last year, too.

Most winners by one jockey: 54
John Velazquez (that's him on the right with his family). Win total represents 13.6 percent of the races run this season. (He was... wait for it... the top jockey last year, too.) Of his wins, 31 came for Todd Pletcher horses. Velazquez now has 655 victories at Saratoga, second all time to Jerry Bailey (693).

Downtown Saratoga businesses say this summer's season was OK -- but Irene cut into sales significantly. [Daily Gazette]

The Saratoga Select Yearlings sale at Fasig-Tipton isn't part of the operations at the Track, but it's very much a part of the season.

Amount spent at Saratoga select yearling sale: $32,892,000
Up more than 1 percent from last year.

Median price paid for a horse: $250,000
Up more than 4 percent from last year.

Top buyer, by amount: Sheikh Mohammed, $8.53 million
Spent on 13 horses.

Top price paid for a horse: $1.3 million
Two horses went for this price.

Sales numbers via Fasig-Tipton.

photo: NYRA, Adam Coglianese