Holiday meet handle way up; purses to increase during classic meet

Oaklawn announced that handle during the 13-day holiday meet that ended Sunday was more than $93 million from all sources, up from $73 million during the corresponding dates last season.

This season, there is a break of 26 days in January before Oaklawn moves to its classic meet, which runs Jan. 30 to May 2.

Attendance during the holiday meet was an estimated 104,250, according to the press release. For the Saturday cards, the track drew an average of 13,000 patrons.

Oaklawn averaged 9.78 horses a race over 132 races. Purses averaged $773,230 per card.

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There were 82 claims during the holiday meet for $1,852,500 in transactions, according to statistics from Oaklawn.

Tom Durant led the owner standings with four wins, while Steve Asmussen topped the trainer standings with 13 wins and Cristian Torres led all riders with 18 wins.

◗ Purses will increase during the classic meet. Oaklawn is boosting maiden special weight pots from $100,000 to $110,000. There are also increases in other divisions like first-level allowances, which will go from $115,000 to $125,000.

◗ Oaklawn appears to be putting the finishing touches on its new receiving barn, which is located directly behind the stable gate. A second new barn was housing a few ponies last weekend.

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