The onset of the holiday season and rough week
end weather sent weekend handle in the mid-Atlantic plummeting to its lowest level since last winter.
Wagering at the region’s four operating tracks — Laurel Park, Charles Town, Parx Racing, and Penn National — sank to less than $4.2 million, down more than a quarter from the prior weekend.
All four tracks saw declines for the weekend, wagering from a relatively modest nine percent dip at Penn National to a nearly 35 percent drop at Parx. Sketchy weekend weather — storms on Friday left muddy tracks on Saturday, and Parx’s Sunday card was conducted in a snow storm — made racing a tough sell. On top of that, only Laurel held any stakes; but that track’s three-stake card could not prevent a 29 percent drop in handle.
Laurel’s Saturday card, with $1.079 million in wagering, was the region’s single busiest card and the only one to top $1 million for the weekend. The snowy Sunday card at Parx, by contrast, attracted less than $520,000 in wagering.
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REGIONAL HANDLE BY WEEKEND
