Los Alamitos, Santa Anita boost purses for upcoming meets
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Los Alamitos and Santa Anita will offer higher purses in coming months compared to the corresponding meetings in September and October of 2025.
The tracks recently released condition book detailing the proposed races for the upcoming meetings.
Both tracks have increased purses in several categories compared to last year, but have kept purses the same as their most recent seasons in the spring and early summer.
The six-day Los Alamitos September meeting runs from Sept. 11-20 on a Friday-through-Sunday basis.
At Los Alamitos, purses for maiden races will be worth $50,000, $5,000 higher than last September. The purse for a first-condition allowance race has been increased $5,000, to $52,000 this year compared to last September.
In lower-class races, $10,000 claimers will race for $20,000 this year compared to $17,000 last year. An $8,000 claimer for nonwinners of two has been hiked by $1,000, to $15,000.
At Santa Anita, a maiden race will be worth $65,000, a $5,000 increase from last fall and the same level available at the track’s spring meeting. A first-condition allowance race will have a purse of $67,000, a gain of $6,000 from last fall.
Similar to Los Alamitos, the increases are not as substantial for some lower-level races at Santa Anita. A $20,000 claimer for maidens will be worth $21,000, an increase of $1,000 from 2025, while a $25,000 claimer for fillies and mares who have not won two races will have a purse of $27,000, or $1,000 more than last year.
Santa Anita’s 19-day fall meeting runs from Sept. 25 to Oct. 25.
Del Mar announced earlier this month that it will have across-the-board increases in overnight purses for its 13-day fall meeting from Nov. 6-29.
Earlier this summer, representatives from racetracks and horsemen’s organizations told the California Horse Racing Board that the tracks have largely eliminated a purse overpayment that reached $8 million at the end of 2024.
A significant amount of the deficit has been erased through handle from account wagering and simulcast locations throughout the state that have been consolidated and directed to Southern California tracks and purse accounts.
Previously, part of that money was devoted to Northern California tracks and purses. There has been no racing in Northern California since the end of 2024. During that fall, a meeting at the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton failed to meet business expectations. Golden Gate Fields in Albany, the circuit’s leading track, closed permanently in June 2024.
California tracks derive money for purses strictly from handle. Tracks in a majority of states have an ancillary form of revenue for purses, such as casinos, slot machines or sports betting. Some of those tracks offer higher prize money than California tracks.
Purses levels at California tracks have been helped to some extent by an infusion of $8 million from the state’s budget into the sport to help fund the racing board’s operations for the next two fiscal years, beginning on July 1 of this year.
The racing board’s budget is largely funded by monies received from racetracks and horsemen’s organizations through revenue generated by handle. The $8 million in savings over the next two fiscal years will be split between the tracks and horsemen’s organizations, with some of the money going toward purses.
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