While horse racing is among the oldest sports in the world, the whispers of the sport’s decline have echoed for a while now. The Jockey Club’s 2022 study fanned those flames when it found that horse racing attendance in the United States fell by 30% in the last two decades. The number of races took a hit too, with 74,000+ in 1989 compared to 33,453 in 2022. That trend continued.
This year, a “hesitancy” in the “lower-tier tickets” sales saw a 6% drop in attendance compared to last year. Yet, hope seems right around the corner. A March 2025 report from The Plaid Horse claimed that thanks to “renewed community-building,” the industry is poised to grow by roughly $114 billion by 2028. That’s a 14.7% CAGR boost during the 2024-28 period. Unfortunately, recent policies may affect that growth rate.
Industry experts explained how President Donald Trump’s administration’s recent immigration and deportation policies have become disruptive for horse racing’s backstretch jobs. Panelists at Monday’s Racing and Gaming Conference in Saratoga said that workers under the H-2B foreign-worker visa program have lost the leeway they previously had. Immigration lawyer Leonard D’Arriga highlighted the issues.
“In today’s climate, ‘good enough’ is not good enough anymore. I used to tell my clients, ‘Perfect compliance is impossible. Just do your best.’ But that’s not enough anymore. Now it has to be perfect,” D’Arriga said during the conference. Meanwhile, veteran horse racing trainer Gary Contessa noted how American workers won’t take up these backstretch jobs.
June 7, 2025, Saratoga Springs, New York, USA: Horses move past the clubhouse for the first time at the 157th Running The Belmont Stakes at Saratoga Racecourse on June 7, 2025 in Saratoga Springs, New York. Saratoga Springs USA – ZUMAb148 20250607_zap_b148_017 Copyright: xBryanxSmithx
“I can honestly say I haven’t seen an American employee looking for a [backstretch] job in our business for the last 20, 30 years,” said the trainer who used to run a 100+ horse barn in New York. “We bring in help from the other countries because they’re the best help,” the trainer explained. Thankfully, things haven’t turned too disruptive yet because this year alone the sport achieved multiple record-breaking feats.
Horse racing may be showing the signs of renewed growth
While the ticket scare and 147,406 people attended the Kentucky Derby compared to last year’s 156,710, causing some alarm, the numbers told a different story. On July 23, 2025, Churchill Downs Incorporated broke a massive record in its second-quarter 2025 financial report. CDI confirmed they’ve earned $934.4 million as of June 30, 2025, which was a nearly 6% growth in revenue.
So it’s quite uncanny that despite reporting 6% less attendance, the CDI saw nearly the same amount of revenue growth. So how did that happen? Well. The magic number is reflected in the viewership metrics. An average of 17.7 million people tuned in to watch the Kentucky Derby this year, a 6% increase from last year. And CDI isn’t the only horse racing organization breaking records.
Horse Racing: 157th Belmont Stakes Jun 7, 2025 Saratoga, NY, USA Raging Torrent 5 with Lanfranco Dettori up wins Race 8 – the Hill N Dale Metropolitan Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. Saratoga Saratoga Race Course NY USA, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xGregoryxFisherx 20250607_szo_fb5_0677
This year’s Fasig-Tipton sale continues to break new ground. The 104th Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale earlier this month shattered records with gross sales topping $100 million for the first time in the event’s history. What’s more? Hip 218, a colt by Into Mischief, became the most expensive horse sold at the Saratoga sale since 2000, fetching a whopping $4.1 million.
The moment hasn’t slowed down. Horse racing experts predicted that this year’s Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Yearlings Sale would break its $19 million gross sales record from last year. It turned out they were absolutely right, as the blockbuster event sold 199 New York-bred yearlings for a record $23,870,000. Even the average price ($119,950) went through the roof, showing 15.1% growth from last year’s sale. However, the experts at the Racing and Gaming Conference believed that the drastic policy changes could dent this growth.
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