Total wagering and purses for the recently completed spring meet at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., set records this year by surpassing the old marks by double digits, according to figures released by the track and a separate analysis by Daily Racing Form. While the figures were buoyed by record-setting wagering numbers for the Kentucky Derby and its supporting card, handle on Churchill’s races after Derby week was up 17.2 percent, according to Churchill. In addition, total wagering on last weekend’s Saturday night card, anchored by the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Stakes, was a record $18.8 million, up 35 percent compared to the last time the Stephen Foster was held at Churchill, in 2022. All told, total wagering for the 43-day meet was $708.3 million, according to Churchill, for an average of $16.47 million per day. That was up 15.2 percent over the total wagering in 2022 of $614.8 million over 42 days, the previous record. Comparing this year’s figures to last year’s spring meet is problematic because Churchill canceled the remainder of the meet last year after its June 4 card due to concern over a spate of fatalities that drew national media attention. The fatalities were clustered around the Derby, but mounting scrutiny throughout May led Churchill to move the rest of the spring meet to Ellis Park, a track in western Kentucky owned by the company. Churchill closed the 2023 meet after running 23 live race cards. Another 14 were held at Ellis, which set wagering records after using Churchill’s condition book and its purse account for races in June and early July. Churchill’s 2024 spring meet total handle was nearly double the total handle for the 2013 spring meet, before Churchill committed to operating historical horseracing machines at multiple venues throughout the state, with the first machines going live in September 2018. The machines, which were given an explicit stamp of approval by the Kentucky legislature in 2021 in a bill that gave racetracks the exclusive right to operate the devices, have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for racetracks in Kentucky and led to a doubling of purses on the circuit over the last decade. The average purse at Churchill’s spring meet this year was $139,313, according to DRF’s analysis, up 14.4 percent compared to the average purse of $121,766 during the 2022 spring meet. During Derby week this year, Churchill had total handle of $446.6 million, including $320.5 million on the Derby card alone, another record not just for Churchill but the entire U.S. racing industry. Post-Derby week, average handle was $7.07 million per day, up 17.2 percent over the post-Derby average handle for the 2022 spring meet, which was $6.03 million per day. Average field size inched up to 8.21 horses per race, from 8.17 in 2023 and 7.91 in 2022. While12 horses died while racing or training at Churchill’s abbreviated spring meet last year, the spring meet this year had two fatalities, both occurring during racing, according to Dr. Nick Smith, the chief veterinarian of the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation. A total of 2,432 horses started during the spring meet, for a fatality rate of 0.8 per 1,000 horses, well below the national average. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.