Wagering Essentially Flat, Purses Up in July

[Wandering Eyes]

Wagering essentially stayed the same in July compared to the same month from 2020 while still showing marked improvement over corresponding 2019 numbers, according to the latest economic indicators released by Equibase. Purses continued to rise over last year's pandemic-affected levels and eclipsed 2019 numbers for July.

Overall, $1,101,617,446 was wagered on U.S. races in July 2021, compared to $1,098,021,143 in 2020, a slight uptick of 0.33%. In July of 2019, $942,243,633 was wagered, making last month's numbers a 16.91% increase over that figure. With the number of race days up, however, average wagering per race day fell 10.27% from $2,758,847 in July 2020 to $2,475,545 in July 2021. That number is still 27.16% higher than July 2019, when $1,946,784 was bet per race day.

Purses totaled $110,489,273 this July, a 22.47% increase over the sum of $90,220,894 paid out in July 2020. That figure is also 6.92% above the $103,342,574 purses totaled in July 2019.

Field size dipped below seven in July 2021, to 6.95 per race after averaging 7.62 in July 2020. The number was 7.11 in July 2019.

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