Fairplex reduces purses of three prominent stakes

The purses of three leading stakes have been reduced from 2009 levels and one race has been eliminated at the Los Angeles County Fair meet at Fairplex Park, which runs from Sept. 9-27. The county fair announced the 2010 stakes schedule on Thursday.

The richest race for older horses at the meeting remains the Ralph Hinds Pomona Invitational over 1 1/8 miles on Sept. 26. The purse of the race has been cut from $125,000, to $75,000.

The Pomona Derby and Las Madrinas Handicap, for fillies and mares, will be worth $50,000, down from $75,000 in 2009. Both races are run over 1 1/16 miles on Sept. 25.

Last year, there were 14 stakes, but this year there are 13, with a restructuring of two races. The 2009 Phil D. Shepherd Stakes was run for older horses over 1 1/16 miles as a prep to the Pomona Invitational, but this year the race will be run for 2-year-old fillies over seven furlongs on Sept. 17. A race with similar conditions for 2-year-old fillies in 2009, the Bustles and Bows Stakes, was eliminated.

The richest races of the meeting will be the Barretts Debutante and Barretts Juvenile on Sept. 18 and 19. The races, which have an estimated value of $110,000, are for 2-year-olds that have passed through the Barretts sales as weanlings, yearlings, or 2-year-olds. The Barretts sales is located in the Fairplex Park complex.

An earlier edition of this article misstated the final day of the Fairplex Park meeting. It ends on Sept. 27, not Sept. 26.