7/31/2026

(Auburn, WA) Tonight is the final Friday night of racing at Emerald Downs for 2026. The track asked the State racing commission to cancel the 4 Friday nights in August due to the shortage of horses. They also asked and received permission to race as many as 12 races on the remaining Saturdays and Sundays.

When the request was made it sent a chilling message to the trainers and backside folks concerned with cutting 4 days of racing along with the purses that come with it.

Track President Phil Ziegler addressed everyone at the commission hearing with the hard numbers of what Emerald is facing this season. The handle is down significantly, the number of short fields has skyrocketed and with short fields comes short pay-outs to bettors who quickly lose interest.

Below we take a deep dive into the numbers and compare this year to last season.

Ziegler then emphatically said that none of the purse money budgeted for this season would be cut that 100% of the purse money will be paid. He said that at the end of the season if there is a surplus of purse money it will be paid out retroactively to all races. In other words, horses that have already run and received purse would receive additional money for those races they ran with the surplus being divided and paid out after the season.

Additionally, with the shorter fields each purse check from 1st to last is about 17% more than last year. So despite the handle being down which directly impacts purses, the promised purse account will be completely paid out with no cuts and each starter is getting about 17% more than they did last year.

Ziegler also stated that he was concerned about filling the Friday nights through July and wouldn’t have been surprised if they had to cancel a day. He said that would be worse than getting ahead of the horse population issue and canceling days ahead of time rather than the week of the scheduled race day.

Friday Night Promotions

This will be the final Friday night fans will get their Friday regular promotions of free entry with their Fab Friday shirt, the horseshoe toss and food and drink specials…on Friday night. Ziegler also announced that all those promotions will be added to all the final Saturdays of 2026. So beginning next week wear your Fab Friday shirt on Saturday and you get free admission, they will be adding the horseshoe toss to Saturdays and with already other Saturday promotions there will be food and drink specials.

Not a Unique Issue

The horse shortage problem is not unique to Emerald Downs. This is an on-going issue across the nation even where purses are higher they are struggling filling races. On July 3rd a Friday, Penn National which is a benefactor of slot machine money ran a 7 race card with fields of 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 4 and 6 for a total of 30 entries or a 4.3 average size race. Their handle was $400,000.

Was it better yesterday? Yes the ran 8 races with fields of 5, 3, 7, 5, 6, 7, 6 and 6 for an average of 5.6 per race and their handle was 808k. This is only one example, feel free to browse through the many other tracks, Belterra, Colonial Downs, Parx, Lone Star, Arapahoe, Gulfstream Park the numbers are rough. Monmouth has struggled for several years and went to 2 day race card a few seasons ago to survive.

Betting Issue

Maybe the hardest part to understand when you are under pressure financially and just trying to get through the day or week and that is the bigger picture. In this case it’s the bettors. When you can’t get a $3 return on a $2 show bet when your horse is 9-2 it’s frustrating to bettors and they move on to something else. The numbers don’t lie and we’re going to look at them here in a moment.

No matter how many trainers or people in the industry who don’t bet the whole sport is based on bettors. That’s how the purse money is first generated. Emerald Downs is in a State that decided back in the mid-90’s that they would have to make it on their own and that no mitigation dollars would come from expanded gambling whether it be casinos or the lottery. So handle remains the biggest generator of purse money in Washington State.

Here’s a hard cold fact, the July 3rd purse money at Penn National where they ran 7 races with just 30 horses and had a handle of $400,000, they paid out in total purse money $156,000 or an average purse that day of $22,000. Considering 75-85% of the 400k handle is paid back to the bettors they are at least 33% short of covering the purses let alone the cost of running the track from custodians to assistant starters, security, taxes and so on.

This is why it is imperative for the betting handle in Washington State to be as high as it can be. It has to hit regularly and diluting it to smaller fields just to get races in does not help increase the handle.

Grind it Out Time

I have always said this group of people, the NW horsemen and women have always been a unique group and have battled like hell for nearly 90 years to get this sport on the map from the golden days of the 70’s and 80’s to struggle of starting over from Longacres to Emerald Downs to the current climate all across the nation yet we’re still here.

No one wants to cut Friday nights, Phil Ziegler doesn’t want to cut Friday nights but for the health of the overall industry something had to be tried. Try to finish strong and then assess where everything is and what can truly be offered or other paths forward. I know it doesn’t seem like it but there are many people trying to help solve the purse issue in Washington State. 

We were not handed the get out of jail free card like many states, we were left by our State government to truly fend for ourselves. Hopefully, more and more legislators will see how much this industry means to the Northwest. We still draw more on-track attendance to Emerald Downs than 90% of the rest of the country.

There’s my little rant of the day so let’s get to the hard numbers…

Handle

Through 33 days for both 2025 and 2026

2025
Total Handle: $43,555,230
Average Per Day: $1,319,855
Per Race: $159,543
# of Races: 273
Races per day: 8.3
Total Starters: 2,020
Starters per Day: 61.2
Per Race: 7.4

2026
Total Handle: $39,798,881 -8.6%
Average Per Day: $1,206,027
Per Race: $151,904
Handle difference -8.6%
# of Races: 262
Races per day: 7.9
Races difference -4.2%
Total Starters: 1,671
Starters per Day: 50.6
Per Race: 6.4 
Starters difference: -21%

Field Size   2025     2026 *these are numbers for 33 days of 2026 and the full 2025 season
        3             1             1
        4             13           3
        5             68          29
        6             78          90
        7             51           115
        8             27          94
        9             17           44
        10            6            26
        11             0            10
        12             1             1 

As you can see some of the numbers have blown by the 2025 final stats through 75% of the season. Broken down by percent it comes off even worse:

In 2025 the total number of 3, 4 and 5 horse fields made up 8% of all the 2025 races. Right now in 2026 the 3, 4 and 5 fields are 31% of the total races.

In 2025 the total number of the fields with 6, 7 and 8 runners equaled 72% of all the races. In 2026 the true meat of all race meets the 6, 7 and 8 fields account for 59% of the races.

In 2025 the big fields of 9-12 were 20% of all the races. In 2026 there still hasn’t been an 11 horse field and the 1st 12 race was just last Sunday and the total 9-12 starters in races for 2026 is just 9% of the total races.

Impact on the customers (Bettors)

Here are the high and low pays for 2025 and so far in 2026. So far the only lower pay for any bet in 2025 to 2026 is the Pick 5 with a low pay of $11.25 compared to this year’s low pay of $24.77. There are only 2 bets that are higher than last year at this time and that’s the $2 place of $45.28 to last year’s $35.44 and the 50-cent trifecta of $1,980 compared to 2025’s $1,564.

There is one lower pay when compared equally and that was the Pick 6 in 2025 had a high pay of $23,738 but it was a 20-cent bet whereas this season it is a 10-cent bet so the 10-cent to 10-cent comparison would have had the 2025 pick 6 pay $11,869 compared to the $13,952 this season.

The rest of the bets are the problem:

$2 win 
2026 High $70.14 Low $2.28
2025 High $109.94 Low $2.28

$2 place
2026 High $45.28 Low $2.10
2025 High $35.44 Low $2.10

$2 Show
2026 High $15.04 Low $2.10
2025 High $26.42 Low $2.10

$1 Exacta
2026 High $230 Low $1.95
2025 High $340 Low $2.34

50-cent Trifecta
2026 High $1,980 Low $.96
2025 High $1,564 Low $2.26

10-cent Superfecta
2026 High $2,351 Low $.44
2025 High $5,109 Low $.68

50-cent Super Hi 5
2026 High $3,857 Low $30.67
2025 High $16,585 Low $47.80

$1 Daily Double
2026 High $262 Low $1.40
2025 High $1,795 Low $3.06

50-cent Pick 3
2026 High $623 Low $1.26
2025 High $2,650 Low $2.52

50-cent Pick 4
2026 High $1,668 Low $3.04
2025 High $27,875 Low $5.86

50-cent Pick 5
2026 High $3,740 Low $24.77
2025 High $18,787 Low $11.25

10-cent Pick 6
2026 High $13,952 Low $9.06
2025 High $11,869 Low $23.90

As you can see the huge differences in many of the bets. This is not attracting more bettors which is essential for racing in Washington state.

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