It is important to embrace change. At the same time, we must continually evaluate the revised product to ensure that the desired results reflect the initial goals. When Yonkers Raceway made the decision to alter the minimum amounts required to wager on its Pick 4 and Pick 5 bets for 2025, I was intrigued. In general harness racing has gotten caught up with low-minimum mania, and we've seen bets that used to have a $2 or $3 minimum for a single combination reduced to as low as 10 cents. Surely there is a place in the market for various levels of players and minimums, and I was eager to track how the raised base would be accepted by the bettors. For those that don't follow Yonkers on a regular basis, and I have to admit to being more of a casual observer of the track, they raised the late Pick 4 minimum to $2 from $1 and the lone Pick 5 from 50 cents to $1. To my knowledge there are no tracks offering a $2 Pick 4 and only Northfield Park has a $1 base Pick 5. I recorded the total handle (rounding up to the nearest dollar) for the early and late Pick 4 as well as the Pick 5 from the start of the meet on January 20 to March 7. With 35 dates in total it seemed like a fair sample size to analyze and at least make some reasonable conclusions. Starting with the late Pick 4, average handle has been $9,128 in 2025, down just over 33% year-over-year for the same time period from the $13,627 average pool size in 2024. The pool has seen hits at both the top and bottom ends, with $10,000-plus wagered on the late Pick 4 23 times in 2024 versus 15 in 2025, and seven pools under $6,000 in 2025 versus none in 2024. Viewing the above results in a vacuum would lead you to think that the change to a $2 minimum has been a complete failure, but I don't think that is really fair. The change was made to accommodate the possibility of carryovers in the wager. The track wanted each Pick 4 to carry over to the same sequence on the following day so it has the opportunity to promote the boosted pool with a potential guarantee attached. The thought process was that for it to work each Pick 4 had to have a different minimum amount. Yonkers applied for the carryovers in December, yet unfortunately they are still waiting for approval from the NY Gaming Commission nearly three months later despite this author being informed that Pick 4 carryovers were approved in 2024. Something is not right here, and we are still waiting for a response from the Commission on the delay. For what it's worth, track officials tell us that they recently followed up on the request and are hopeful to hear something in the next week. Another interesting point to consider revolves around the early Pick 4, which remained at a $1 minimum. That wager also saw a decrease from $16,714 to $14,376, an almost 14% decline. Total average handle per race is also down 6.6% industry-wide in the United States. Looking at both declining numbers, we have to attribute at least a small portion of the 34% late Pick 4 dip to factors outside of the increased minimum wagering amount. In contrast, the Pick 5 minimum increase from 50 cents to $1 has produced more positive results. Boosted by a number of carryovers that were clearly brought on by the higher cost of a ticket, the average Pick 5 pool has increased almost 6% in 2025 to $13,128. The range of the Pick 5 in 2024 was $5,565 to $20,649 while in 2025 it is $4,106 to $53,752. On top of that, there have been four carryover-powered Pick 5 pools over $30,000 in 2025. What the $1 Pick 5 does impact is the low end of the spectrum. Handle on any single Pick 5 fell below $6,000 just once in 2024 while it has already happened 10 times this year. Interestingly, when the track offers its $10,000 guaranteed Pick 5 pool on Mondays the average handle (eliminating the one Monday card with a carryover) comes in at $13,508, above the total average for the 35 dates in 2025. Perhaps that is a signal to offer more guarantees throughout the week. At the very least, Tuesday should have the $10,000 guarantee since it already averages $12,979 in 2025, and the promised pool total can only help. While the initial exercise was simply to evaluate the performance of the Pick X wagers given the wagering changes, my biggest takeaway involves the racing schedule as a whole and a clear indicator that Yonkers may be best served by racing Monday to Thursday with additional races on each card. In terms of the Pick X wagers, Friday is consistently the worst performing night of the week for the track. Numbers can be manipulated but in this case they don't lie. Through seven Fridays in 2025, Yonkers is averaging $6,769 per Pick X wager. Next up is Thursday at $7,992 (eliminating one carryover night), which doesn't seem that much higher, but it is an 18% increase. Competition is key and on Friday Yonkers must go head to head with industry leaders the Meadowlands and Woodbine Mohawk Park, two tracks which handle four to six times more than Yonkers. Economically it just makes sense for Yonkers to race four cards a week with 13 races per night, 52 races per week, which is very similar to the number of races currently offered over five nights. Removing a racing night eliminates having to "turn the lights on" one night and have personnel at the track to handle the live racing. It also highlights the nights of the week where handle is better. The top rebuttal to losing a night of racing will be that the track is required to race a certain number of dates per year (about 240). I would make an argument that any contract negotiated with the track (the current one expires in May) can simply change racing dates to total races, so instead of 240 dates it can be 3,120 races per year. That number could even be increased by 40 to 50 to accommodate Sire Stakes. While I believe there is a limit on the number of races a New York track can offer on one night (15 perhaps), the Gaming Commission has often made exceptions to increase that total when there are Sire Stakes scheduled so that overnight horses can compete. If Sire Stakes are on the menu, have 15 races, or if you have a special card of racing like Triple Crown Night that includes the MGM Yonkers Trot and MGM Grand Messenger Pace, race those on Saturday afternoon when all eyes will be on you. ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter We asked Standardbred Owners Association of New York President Joe Faraldo about reducing the dates for races and he was firmly against the notion. "It brings you to a point where the next thing will be, how about we only race three days a week? And before you know it there will be only two days a week of racing and not enough to accommodate all of the people who were able to race five days at 10 races per night," said Faraldo. "When you get to the summer you can't fill 13 races. We have trouble filling them now and we have the best purses around." It is difficult to fill races when certain trainers are not permitted to enter their horses and Faraldo also addressed the notion bandied about on social media at times that Yonkers has a closed door policy. "It does, but when you have a person apply at Yonkers who has four TCO2 positives at Plainridge and two more at Saratoga, I don't blame [race secretary] Joe [Frasure] for saying 'we don't want you.' When you have a guy who makes a public statement about something at Yonkers that is no damn good, a trainer has to be careful. I'm the one that is supposed to make those comments and do those things because I'm not training horses and my livelihood doesn't depend on Yonkers Raceway." Faraldo also added that some of the people who may have been denied entry was due to trainers possibly using "beards" to beat the system. He mentioned horses that would be entered with the same ownership but different trainers and felt at peace with management using its right to deny the entry. "The easiest thing to do is to say it is not in the best interest to allow the horse to participate because it is private property," Faraldo said. Faraldo also touched on the potential of fixed odds wagering coming to Yonkers Raceway in the future after he reportedly told the U.S. Trotting Association Board of Directors that it was in the works. He is currently working with NYRA as the Standardbred and Thoroughbred industries band together to get the legislation passed. The idea is to offer a fixed wagering horse racing opportunity to different wagering platforms, either as part of parlays or perhaps straight win wagers only. To protect the harness industry from losing any current handle, Faraldo said the deal will include protection so that Standardbreds share in a percentage of the total revenue of the venture, including from the Thoroughbred side. "I'm here to protect the industry, at least from the SOA of NY perspective," said Faraldo, who added that if it was passed by both houses of the Legislature in the current session we could see fixed odds wagering by 2026. While I have consistently wondered why Faraldo has been so insistent on refusing to allow NYRA Bets to accept wagering on harness races from outside New York, he did make some interesting points when we touched on the topic. His main objection was that he has everything to lose and nothing to gain by giving in. According to Faraldo, NYRA would get around paying the 5% New York State tax by allowing its customers to use its New York hub for non-New York harness tracks instead of one from out of state. So NYRA benefits but Standardbred tracks don't, especially since their ADWs, like Yonkers' Empire City Bets, could lose harness customers to NYRA Bets if they were permitted to accept wagers on tracks like the Meadowlands. "If I'm losing $100,000 to $200,000 a night in handle, before you know it there is no action on Yonkers," said Faraldo, who further argued that even if the numbers were much smaller it was irrelevant. "Whether the numbers are miniscule or big, we can't afford to make the mistakes that track owners have made through the years. You can't let someone else control what you are doing." As we tried to cover all of the bases, Faraldo also chimed in on Computer Assisted Wagering (CAW) outlets and their impact on the sport. He worries that they will suck the remaining customer base dry and the industry will be left holding a ball with no court to play on. "They drive people away from our game," said Faraldo. "At the bigger tracks they are 35% to 40% [of handle] and the smaller tracks they are 70%. What happens when they suck all the money out of the game from the other people who are trying to compete with these algorithms? Will they walk away and decide to go bet on the Denver Nuggets? Or what if they create an algorithm for any other sport and leave us? What will we have left? This is very dangerous." There is a clear reason to be concerned and we've seen some Thoroughbred tracks take action by cutting off wagering for CAW players prior to post time. At least one Standardbred track told me that they are contemplating a similar move. That said, if Faraldo's percentage estimates are correct, one has to wonder if the sport can survive without the CAW handle even now. Though with most tracks not reliant on handle to support their purses, the sport is safe, for now.