People bet at Santa Anita Park, where purses have shrunk along with the number of races and a lack of money coming in from off-site betting.
(Getty Images)
Calculating the purse for 34 of the 35 stakes races at Santa Anita, for horsemen anyway, is maddeningly simple: Just find the minimum purse required in North America.
For a Level 1 race, that's $300,000. The amount drops to $200,000 for Level 2 races and $100,000 for Level 3 races.
Even the only local exception, the Santa Anita Derby, is paying “only” $500,000 after offering $750,000 between 2021 and 2024. The current amount is half of what is offered for top three-year-old races at Gulfstream Park (Florida Derby) and Fair Grounds (Louisiana Derby) and just one-third of what Oaklawn Park pays for the Arkansas Derby.
Last year's Santa Anita Derby drew only five entries, reducing the number of Kentucky Derby qualifying points available in the race. This nearly prevented Baeza, who finished second to Journalism in the Arcadia race, from qualifying for the Derby (he entered the field only after another horse was scratched and finished third).
It's a similar story for older horses, with Gulfstream offering the $3 million Pegasus World Cup next month plus $1 million and $500,000 turf races. Oaklawn Park has a half-dozen races worth at least $500,000 (two for $1.25 million), and the Fairgrounds has three worth between $250,000 and $500,000. No Grade 3 race at any of these tracks offers less than $150,000.
All of this makes it difficult for Santa Anita to attract top horses from those states, which boost purses with money generated from slot machines or casinos that are not available at California tracks. However, at this meeting, Santa Anita increased its purses for maiden and charity runs.
