How Travers stacked up against this year’s epic Whitney, Fasig-Tipton
Sovereignty was must-see TV but a boring bet — what did this mean for NYRA?
What a season.
As we ease into the last week of the 2025 meet, we can at last take a fair look at our season’s biggest race days and season highlights.
Belmont Day this year was rocky, betting wise — weather issues and postponed races aided a handle drop of 19 percent from 2024’s non-Triple Crown-year record-breaker, as explained in this June 7 report in BloodHorse.
But the Whitney and Fasig Tipton’s numbers were peak-excitement-level epic.
MORE ON THE WHITNEY: Whitney Day ‘25 brings in highest purse ever by wild amount
Even the galas broke records this year, as people opened their wallets for the nonprofits, too. The Hospital Gala, for example, landed $100,000 in 60 seconds, and AIM Services’ Croquet on the Green and Garden Party raised the event’s most ever.
So with all of this money flying around, how did Travers add up?
It was a tough few acts to follow.
The Whitney Day handle was up a staggering 22.7 percent over 2023’s record — with an increase of more than $10 million. And then Fasig Tipton enjoyed its third consecutive record-breaking year, finishing its 2025 sales at $82 million, a whopping 22.6 percent over last year.
Travers, meanwhile, was gearing up to be a potentially history-making race. The great Sovereignty — winner of the Kentucky Derby, Belmont and Jim Dandy — was running at 1 to 4 odds to maybe become the first horse to win those three and the Midsummer Derby.
Fans packed the place, both eager to see Sovereignty run and because of the aforementioned excitement hanging in the air after a pretty spectacular season.
“We went to the track more this year than the last few years combined,” says a friend who brought her family-of-four to Travers Day. “It got fun again.”
She wasn’t alone: Saturday’s attendance was up a teeny bit over last year. The handle, however, faced some challenges. While getting to see Sovereignty run got people in the doors, having such a heavy favorite is a boring bet. Plus, there was a tiny field, limiting some betting.
The end result: a handle that was down 14 percent from last year, according to an Aug. 24 piece in the Times Union. (But still the third-highest overall, according to the outlet.)
“We hit an exacta early on; the undercard was great today,” said the spectator. “But none of us put any money down on the actual Travers. We didn’t even think about it; we were having too much fun.”
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