Dollars & Sense: Top Average Purses by Track for 2023

Kentucky's vision of providing a full circuit of tracks offering top purses behind funding from historical horse racing, increased interest in pari-mutuel handle from the large fields that compete for those purses, and increased takeout on players in recent years has taken root.

It's an ongoing trend that's been documented in this column but the BloodHorse MarketWatch 2023 Purse Report featured in the current February issue again draws attention to this success story. It's right in the numbers that MarketWatch consistently presents, in this case seven-figure numbers.

At nearly $3.5 million in daily purses, the seven-day stand at Kentucky Downs again led North America in the category. More telling is that four of the top six tracks in this category are located in the Bluegrass State, as Churchill Downs and Keeneland both offered purses approaching the level of New York's Saratoga Race Course.

Beyond that, Kentucky's Ellis Park landed at No. 6 at $790,564. Granted, the 2023 Churchill and Ellis numbers were impacted by the shortened meet at Churchill that saw Ellis offer 15 additional days (38 total) compared with 2022 while Churchill saw a reduction of 18 dates (58 total). Still, as Kentucky shows no signs of slowing down, Ellis figures to continue to be very strong even as it returns to its normal dates in 2024.

Beyond that, Kentucky's winter dates' track, Turfway Park, could soon join tracks that offered purses of at least $500,000, a club that numbered 14 in 2023. The Northern Kentucky track awarded daily purses of $404,071 in 2023—up 17% from 2022, when it paid a daily average of $346,455.

The other track in the top six is Belmont Park, which also had planned schedule changes. The table on this page is the average daily purses paid at Belmont through its spring meet as well as the purses paid at the Belmont at Aqueduct meeting as Belmont is being reconstructed. Belmont will not offer race dates in 2024, as most of its racing will be conducted at Aqueduct while some—including Belmont Stakes Day—will be offered at Saratoga.

Other big movers of interest? Oaklawn Park continues its positive trend as average daily purses improved 5.9%. The HHR machines that have helped fuel Kentucky purses also are working in Virginia as the daily average at Colonial Downs spiked 15% to more than $643,000. 

Zia Park in New Mexico saw a significant reduction in race dates, down from 32 in 2022 to 15 in 2023, but that move did see average daily purses more than double to $530,232. Average field size improved from 7.45 to 8.91.