Churchill Downs among winners in 2025 handle growth

For the better part of a decade, one of my weekly habits has been to compile handle figures for nearly every U.S. track that conducts Thoroughbred racing. My basic goal is to see which tracks are proving most popular with the American bettor and to stay on top of any notable business shifts.

While other people do this kind of analysis, too, even getting granular by calculating how much is wagered per race or per entry, my interest is broader. I basically like to know the average daily handle at every track, given the data I have access to.

All that said, here are some takeaways from the year in Thoroughbred wagering for 2025:

Churchill Downs cracks 10 figures

Buoyed by robust business during Kentucky Derby week, Churchill Downs handled more than $1 billion for the first time in its history during 2025. But the split fall meets in September (+12.1%), and November (+10%) also saw strong increases in daily handle. 

Yes, Churchill can rely on hosting the country's most wagered-on horse race to reach the 10-figure threshold, but the three other tracks that handled more than $1 billion have their advantages, too. Gulfstream is the traditional year-end leader in total handle, but then they ran approximately 197 days in 2025. The same for Aqueduct, which barely scraped into the $1 billion territory while racing 145 days. And Saratoga would typically not crack the mark without the benefit of hosting Belmont Stakes week, which they will likely lose beginning in 2027.

A big year in Kentucky

In addition to Churchill Downs, nearly every other track in Kentucky saw notable gains in average daily handle. The short, all-turf Kentucky Downs meet was up around 18.4%, while the Churchill-owned Ellis Park (+8.5%) and Turfway Park (+5%) both showed improvement over 2024. Keeneland, hurt by weather-related postponements to its spring meet opening weekend, was down modestly (-1.2%) in average daily handle.

Nighttime signals make big gains

Some of the biggest percentage gains in average daily handle were at tracks that primarily run in the evenings (Eastern time). For example, Assiniboia Downs and Mountaineer showed increases of 27.7% and 19.4%, respectively, while each handled more than $1 million per card. Mountaineer, in fact, had its best season since the pandemic, averaging $1.3 million per day. Other big winners were Fairmount Park (+47.8%) and Emerald Downs (+38%).

Maryland boost

In advance of racing in Maryland being consolidated at Pimlico over the next couple of years, both "Old Hilltop" and Laurel showed notable gains in average daily handle. In both cases, less was indeed more.

Pimlico raced only six days at its deteriorating facility last year, roughly half the number of days as in 2024, but that allowed the track to see average handle jump 78.7% to a nation-high $25.3 million per card. Of course, that's entirely due to the popular Preakness and Black-Eyed Susan cards.

Laurel, though, saw an increase of more than 8% in daily business by avoiding direct competition with the expanded Colonial Downs meet over the summer. Laurel's post-Labor Day session, presumably blessed by weather that kept most scheduled grass races on the turf, also saw a robust increase in daily business of more than 20%.

Hawthorne blues

By far the most discouraging business trend in Thoroughbred betting was at Hawthorne in suburban Chicago. Average daily handle on its twice-a-week Thoroughbred cards plummeted from $1.498 million in 2024 to around $810,000 in 2025, a dip of 45.9 percent. In nominal terms, that's surely the lowest handle figure at Hawthorne in decades. That figure proved slightly below that of Penn National and barely ahead of Thistledown, Sunland Park (Thoroughbred only cards), and Fairmount.