Del Mar autumn meet purses raised

Del Mar will increase purses for its five-week meeting from Oct. 31 to Nov. 29 compared to recent autumn seasons, the track announced earlier this week.

Purses will rise by about 10 percent compared to the 2019 autumn meeting and will be slightly higher than the recently completed summer meeting. Purses for the 2019 autumn meeting were slightly lower than prize money offered at the 2018 autumn meeting.

At the upcoming meeting, a maiden special weight race will be worth $57,000 compared to $52,000 last fall and $55,000 at the end of this year’s summer meeting. A first-condition allowance race will have a purse of $59,000. The same race was worth $53,000 last fall and $57,000 in late August and early September this year.

Prior to the summer meeting this year, the track reduced overnight purses by 20 percent out of concern that business would decline because of the coronavirus pandemic. The track opened without spectators and later changed the policy to admit owners on days their horses raced.

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Overnight purses were increased by 10 percent at the end of July, retroactive to the start of the meeting, which cut in half the reduction announced before the season.

Track president Josh Rubinstein said Wednesday that the summer meeting ended with an underpayment in the purse fund, allowing for additional monies to be devoted to the upcoming autumn meeting.

“We were on the positive side,” he said. “There were a lot of unknowns going into the summer meet. We didn’t want to get in a situation where we were significantly overpaid. There’s nothing to compare this to. We thought being conservative was the right approach.”

Relying almost entirely on account-wagering sources, Del Mar announced all-sources handle of $466.6 million at the 27-day summer meeting compared to $431.9 million during a 36-day summer meeting in 2019. The meeting was run largely on a Friday-through-Sunday basis this year compared to Wednesday-through-Sunday in recent years.

The upcoming autumn meeting will largely have a Friday-through-Sunday schedule, a slight reduction from 2019.

The track has enhanced its bonus program for out-of-state runners this fall. Horses sent to Del Mar from other states or countries that have not raced in California in the last 12 months and are not first-time starters will be eligible for a 30 percent bonus of prize money earned in their first overnight races and a $3,000 bonus for all qualified runners in their first starts of the meeting. The starting bonus was $2,000 last fall.

Conditions for the “Ship and Win” program have fluctuated in recent years, with bonuses in overnight races as high as 40 percent in the summer of 2019.