Betting on the Kentucky Derby this year again established a record at $180.16 million, with the total benefiting from an enormous surge in wagering in the straight pools, according to charts. Overall, betting on the Derby was up 6.8 percent compared to last year’s record, or approximately $11.4 million. Betting in the win, place, and show pools was up 18.0 percent, or $13.8 million, making up for declines in the trifecta and superfecta pools. The straight pool total was $89.2 million, easily a record. Officials for Churchill Downs and its sports-betting partner, FanDuel, had predicted a gain in Derby wagering due to the ability of FanDuel customers to use their deposits to bet on the Derby for the first time this year, without first opening an account with a horse-racing platform. That appeared to be the case on Saturday, given that this year’s field was 18 horses instead of 20, which usually yields declines in most betting pools. :: Get ready to bet the Preakness! Join DRF Bets and score a $250 Deposit Match + $10 Free Bet + Free PPs - Promo code: WINNING Andrew Moore, general manager of racing for FanDuel, declined on Monday to provide exact figures for the number of FanDuel customers who made a bet on the Derby or the amount of wagers that FanDuel processed on the race. But he said that the company’s expectations for “hundreds of thousands” of bets from FanDuel customers were “in line.”  “We were going into the event hoping to introduce a bunch of FanDuel customers to racing for the first time, and we absolutely succeeded,” Moore said. While exacta betting was up 2.1 percent, betting in the trifecta pool was down 4.8 percent, while betting in the superfecta pool was down 7.3 percent. Five horses were scratched from the Derby field this year, including the morning-line favorite, Forte, on Saturday morning. The last time five horses were scratched from the Derby was in 1936. The favorite in the race ended up as Angel of Empire, aided by a $1.2 million bet by Jim McIngvale, who places enormous bets on sporting events as a hedge on promotions offered at his furniture stores. Angel of Empire was 4.06-to-1 and finished third. The second choice was Tapit Trice at 4.53-to-1. Tapit Trice finished seventh. This year’s Derby was won by Mage, who was 15.21-to-1. He was followed by Two Phil’s at 9.87-to-1 and then Angel of Empire. Churchill reported that attendance on Saturday was 150,335, a slight gain over the reported attendance last year of 147,294. Total betting on the entire 14-race card was $279.95 million, also a record, according to charts. The total this year was up 6.4 percent over the record established last year. Unlike the racing industry overall, the Kentucky Derby continues to generate strong growth in handle at a time when overall handle on the sport has been moribund. Churchill officials were hoping the partnership with FanDuel would pay dividends this year and push Derby handle to another record. Betting on the Derby was also allowed in Japan again this year, due to the presence of two Japan-based horses in the field (a third, Continuar, was scratched), including the third choice, Derma Sotogake. Betting in Japan is conducted through a separate pool that is not commingled with the international pools hosted by Churchill on the race. On Monday, Darren Rogers, a spokesman for Churchill, said that the total amount bet in the separate pools was $6.3 million. In 2022, with one Japan-based horse in the race, Japanese bettors wagered $8.3 million on the Derby, Churchill officials said last year.  On Friday, total betting on the 13-race Kentucky Oaks card at Churchill Downs in Louisville set a record of $74.9 million, a slight gain over the record of $74.6 million set last year. Wagering on the Oaks itself, however, was down 7.8 percent. For both Friday and Saturday, total betting was $345.85 million. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.