Total handle on the Belmont Stakes on Saturday at Saratoga Racecourse was $60.9 million, the highest since the 2018 running of the race, when Justify won the Belmont and the Triple Crown, according to charts of the races. The total amount bet, including all multi-race bets ending in the Belmont, was up 7.73 percent over last year’s total of $56.5 million, according to the charts, and it just narrowly edged the total for the 2021 race, which was $60.15 million. That was the highest total for the Belmont since the 2018 race, when betting was $79.7 million. This year’s field had 10 runners, up from nine last year. This year’s race was won by Dornoch, the seventh choice in the race, at 17-1. The 8-5 favorite, Sierra Leone, finished third. Total betting for the 13-race card on Saturday at Saratoga was $125.75 million, up 6.3 percent over total betting on a 13-race card last year and a record for full-card handle in a non-Triple Crown year. The full-card figure was up despite a significant decline in the number of horses that participated in the day’s races, from 124 last year to 110 this year. :: Get the Inside Track with the FREE DRF Morning Line Email Newsletter. Subscribe now.  The full-card handle was the highest for a Belmont Stakes card since 2018, when handle was $137.5 million in Justify’s Triple Crown year. For the Belmont, betting was especially strong in the win, place, and show pools, up 15.8 percent compared to last year. Betting in the straight pools has been increasing for all three Triple Crown races over the past several years, likely due to the rapid growth in legal sports betting, which gives many casual players easy access to horserace betting through their existing accounts. Wagering was also up in the exacta pool, by 13.4 percent, while betting in the trifecta pool was up marginally, by 2.77 percent. Betting in the superfecta pool was down 8.44 percent. The New York Racing Association, which operates Saratoga, added three daily doubles linked to the Belmont Stakes this year by tying the race result to several other races earlier in the day. Total betting on the six daily doubles was $2.08 million this year, compared to $1.62 million on three doubles linked to the Belmont last year. This year’s Belmont was held at Saratoga for the first time due to the renovation of Belmont Park on Long Island. Attendance on Saturday was 50,000, the cap for the day, according to NYRA. Next year’s Belmont will also be held at Saratoga. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.