SARATOGA SPRINGS – After years of spectacular gains, the betting handle on racing at Saratoga was down nearly $10 million over the first seven days of the meet as compared to last year (from $103.7M to $93.8M), with new legislation allowing unlimited simulcasting for the state’s Off-Track Betting corporations the main culprit, according to New York Racing Association senior vice-president Bill Nader.

“To a large extent, our business is being cannibalized,” Nader said. “Our intrastate handle is down because the OTBs are taking close to 100 more races a day (from out-of-state tracks). So we won’t show the same kind of increases we did in the past. Our handle is going to be down. It’s something we have to deal with this year.”

Nader cited two other factors. Rain early in the meet kept many races off the turf and resulted in small fields. And over the weekend, two horses were declared non-starters after troubled getaways, and another horse flipped in the gate and was scratched at post time, resulting in more than $2 million in refunds.

NYRA is optimistic that wagering can make up ground if the weather cooperates on Travers Day, Aug. 23. Last year’s business was knocked for a loop when the Travers was run on the nastiest day of the meet.

“The Travers is our ace in the hole,” Nader said.