A Stop Horseracing Article from All-Creatures.org

The Fall of Horseracing, by the Numbers

FROM HorseracingWrongs.org
April 2024

Horseracing is less popular than ever, but because of government subsidies and casino revenues, the exploiters are laughing all the way to the bank.

The Jockey Club has released data for 2023. Below, I present last year’s numbers relative to 5, 10, and 20 years ago. As you will see, there can be no doubt about horseracing’s practically inexorable decline. (TJC only monitors Thoroughbred racing, but what’s true there is equally true with the Quarterhorse variety, and even more so with harness.)

Number of Races
2023: 31,746
2018: 36,586
2013: 43,139
2003: 53,500
down 13% from 5 years ago
down 26% from 10 years ago
down 41% from 20 years ago

Number of Starters (horses who were raced)
2023: 41,267
2018: 46,144
2013: 54,187
2003: 68,249
down 11% from 5 years ago
down 24% from 10 years ago
down 40% from 20 years ago

“Foal Crop” (number of new Thoroughbreds coming into the system)
2023: 17,200 (estimated)
2018: 19,765
2013: 21,431
2003: 33,976
down 13% from 5 years ago
down 20% from 10 years ago
down 49% from 20 years ago

As for the handle – the amount wagered on racing – it’s difficult to get reliable inflation-adjusted numbers. But consider that in just real numbers, betting on U.S. racing is down 23% over the past 20 years. And in a Legal Sports Report article on racing trends, Pat Cummings of the National Thoroughbred Alliance says this: “If we wanted to compare what we were doing in terms of handle 20 years ago versus where we are last year or this year, you need to double where those figures were. We’d need to be doing about $25 billion in today’s dollars [they’re doing a little over $11.5B]. It is substantially worse than it looks.” Which basically means wagering has plummeted some 50% over the past 20 years.

One metric, however, continues to rise. Says the Daily Racing Form in a January article: “The average purse has been on a steady upward trajectory for decades despite static or declining handle numbers over the same term.” Why is that? But of course, subsidies, as the DRF readily admits: “Purses at U.S. tracks are heavily subsidized by casino revenues.”

So there you have it. Horseracing is less popular than ever, but because of government handouts, the exploiters are laughing all the way to the bank.

(There is also the shuttering of tracks – 45 since 2000, and counting.)

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