Santa Anita Announces Overnight Purse Increases

With its traditional Winter meet opener fast approaching Dec. 26, Santa Anita Park has announced purse increases for all of its overnight races, with some categories getting as much as an 11% boost when compared to purse levels at the track's recently concluded Autumn meet.

In addition to higher purses, horsemen will also find increased benefits for those running in races with purse levels of $30,000 or lower, as purse distribution in those races has been adjusted to better compensate horses that finish fourth and fifth. Percentage of purse distribution in those races, from first through fifth, will now be 55%, 20%, 12%, 8%, and 5%.

"The overall increase in purse money is due to increased handle over the last year," said P.J. Campo, vice president of racing for The Stronach Group. "We've adjusted the purses for the mid-level races in order to try to increase participation and field size, which drives handle. With these and other changes in place, we're looking forward to a great Winter meet starting the day after Christmas."

Other changes, designed to increase field size, come in the first condition allowance category. Instead of being restricted to horses who are non-winners of $10,000 other than maiden, claiming, or starter, horses will now be eligible if they've won $15,000 "other than."

This adjustment has been made to entice more European and out-of-state horses to participate. Additionally, for the first time ever, horses that win first condition allowance races at Golden Gate Fields will now be exempted and eligible to run again at the same non-winner's level at Santa Anita, which will hopefully serve to incentivize Bay Area horsemen to ship south for substantially more money.