Sam Houston increases overnight purses

Sam Houston Race Park has seen a spike in handle during its current meet and plans to institute a substantial overnight purse increase this week, the Houston track announced Sunday.

Sam Houston will add $7,000 to the purse of each overnight race written for the main track. The move boosts maiden special weight purses to $43,000, entry-level allowances to $44,000, and $5,000 claiming races to $19,500. The track will add $2,000 to the purse of each overnight race written for turf.

The increases bring the average daily purse distribution to more than $275,000, according to Frank Hopf, senior director of racing operations for Sam Houston. It’s a record average for the track that opened the current meet with its strongest-ever purse structure.

Hopf said Sam Houston is handling an average of more than $2.2 million per day on its live races from all sources. It’s a 40 percent increase, according to the press release. The numbers have been spurred, in part, by track-record handle of $5.3 million achieved during the Houston Racing Festival card on Jan. 31.

Hopf said Tuesday there were a number of factors driving the handle increase at Sam Houston, which opened in 1994.

:: Want to get your Past Performances for free? Click to learn more.

“I think a lot of people have caught on to our 12 percent takeout,” Hopf said. “There’s been a lot of positive buzz from the bettors out there about that.

“With the purse money, we’ve been able to put a nice racing product together each day. Some competitive races. That’s certainly a benefit. And obviously the Racing Festival was a very nice day of racing for us that brought some additional focus on Sam Houston, and that’s continued to help us through the month of February so far.”