BC Saturday Handle trends

[Southieboy]

2012 - $96,685,567 (SA 12 races)
2011 - $105,472,442 (CD 12 races)
2010 - $118,631,943 (CD 11 races)
2009 - $96,159,747 (SA 10 races)
2008 - $107,600,000 (SA 11 races)
2007 - $111,903,685 (MTH 11 races)
-----------------
2006 - $136,726,378 (CD 10 races)
2005 - $122,106,154 (BEL 10 races)
2004 - $120,863,117 (LS 12 races)
2003 - $120,631,437 (SA 12 races)

[Handsomepolack]

2012 down over 8% at the BC, just not like before. and please have all races on 1 day

[Wallyhorse2]

You can't fault the BC on this one:

I was expecting handle to be down twice as much as it actually was if not more. People in the east in many cases were STILL without power (and in some cases as of this writing, STILL are from Sandy not including those who got power back, only to go down again with the nor'easter). For some, the sheer need of SURVIVAL was a much bigger priority than the BC, and many locations that normally would be packed for the BC in the northeast were virtually empty due to people either still dealing with the aftereffects of Sandy or in many cases having to wait in long lines just to find GAS, if they could find a station that was open and selling (it's to the point where there is gas rationing in New Jersey for the first time since 1979 and as of Friday morning is being joined by New York City). On top of that, there was very little interest from many in the Northeast who are in many places having to play big-time catchup on things due to Sandy (and now on top of that the nor'easter). Add to that the lack of the print edition of Daily Racing Form being available and in the case of Aqueduct, the heating having to be turned off by Con Edison (per Steve Crist's Saturday DRF Blog) and you can see the problems this BC had. It is why had it been up to me, this year's Breeders' Cup would have been postponed by one week and moved to Hollywood Park.

Keep in mind we have had two FREAK weather systems in as many years hit the northeast in the days leading up to the Breeders' Cup, in both cases causing people who may have set money aside to bet the Breeders' Cup to instead use that money to buy emergency supplies, batteries and so forth. In both cases, many people were without power for more than a week, and were still without power when the Breeders' Cup came around (though nowhere near as many from last year's freak snowstorm as opposed to this year with Sandy).

Given NBC was very happy with the prime time rating for the BC Classic and the growing trend of sports being the only thing that does well in prime time on Saturday nights, look for NBC to insist on next year's Breeders' Cup Saturday telecast to run to 11:00 PM ET to cover all of Saturday prime time, plus likely an hour on Friday from 10:00-11:00 PM ET/7:00-8:00 PM PT. This means if that happens, either Santa Anita will have to install lights or next year's BC will have to be moved to a site capable of racing at night (and that could be what prevents Hollywood Park from closing for good ironically enough).

[Delmarjohn]

even in good times the handle when held at SA is always the lowest,even the wet one held at monmouth