Los Alamitos purses lower than Hollywood's

Overnight purses at the Los Alamitos Thoroughbred meeting in July will be lower than those offered at the corresponding time last year by Hollywood Park, according to track officials.

Los Alamitos will have a two-week, eight-day meeting July 3-13, racing dates previously held by Hollywood Park, which was closed last December. The meeting will run on a Thursday-through-Sunday basis.

The Los Alamitos purse levels are well below those at the current spring-summer meeting at Santa Anita or what was offered at the 2013 meeting at Del Mar.
A maiden special weight race at Los Alamitos will be worth $42,000, compared with $52,000 at Hollywood Park last year. The same race at Santa Anita this spring is worth $56,000. Del Mar offers $75,000 maiden races.

A $20,000 claiming race for maidens will be worth $17,000 at Los Alamitos, $2,000 less than a similar race at Hollywood Park in 2013 or at Santa Anita. A $25,000 claimer will be worth $26,000 at Los Alamitos, $6,000 less than Hollywood Park or Santa Anita.

Brad McKinzie, who directs the Thoroughbred operation at Los Alamitos, told the California Horse Racing Board in May that developing a purse structure was “a little bit of a guessing game.”

“We took a lot of input how we thought we’d do compared to how Hollywood Park did on comparative dates,” he said.

McKinzie said Los Alamitos studied expected revenue generated from handle for purses and had Hollywood Park executive Bernie Thurman conduct an independent study. McKinzie said the two studies produced similar results.

“We’re expecting to do 85 percent of what Hollywood Park did,” he said.

While overnight purses will be less, the track is offering the $500,000 Los Alamitos Derby for 3-year-olds over 1 1/8 miles on July 5. The race replaces the Swaps Stakes, which was previously run at Hollywood Park and was worth $150,000 in 2013.