Santa Anita creates bonus program in effort to boost field size in overnight races

ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita will launch a bonus program in April designed to lure horses from other circuits and boost field size in the final months of the current meeting.

The Santa Anita Sunshine Bonus will be put in place at a time the track is planning to run three days per week from Friday through Sunday through closing day on June 21, according to Steve Lym, the track’s vice president of racing. The exception will be the Memorial Day program on Monday, May 25.

The track has largely run three days per week since the meeting began on Dec. 28.

Under the new incentive program, the track will pay a 50 percent bonus to an owner whose horse finishes first through fifth in overnight races in their initial start of the meeting. The horse cannot have raced in California in the last year. First-time starters and horses running in stakes will not be eligible.

In addition, a $3,000 participation bonus will be paid to owners for horses having their initial starts at the meeting in overnight races that have not raced in California in the last year and are not first-time starters.

Lym said financing for the bonus program is a joint venture between the track and the Thoroughbred Owners of California, the state’s official representative of owners.

The program is similar to an incentive program that has been in place at Del Mar since 2011. At the 2019 summer meeting, Del Mar’s incentive program paid a $2,500 participation bonus and offered a 40 percent bonus in overnight races for horses having their first start at the meeting who had not raced in California in the last year.

At the track’s 2019 autumn meeting, the Del Mar incentive program paid a $2,000 participation bonus and offered a 30 percent bonus in overnight races for qualified runners.

Del Mar officials said earlier this month that they plan an announcement in March on a potential purse increase for the summer 2020 meeting and a possible expansion of the track’s bonus program in an effort to lure sufficient horses to the meeting to race primarily five days a week.

Santa Anita has struggled to draw full fields at the current meeting. Through Sunday, the 30th day of the meeting, fields had averaged 7.34 runners per race compared to 7.48 runners per race through 36 racing days during a comparable period of the 2018-19 season.

Santa Anita has run one Thursday at the current meeting on Jan. 30, but the program drew small handle and averaged 6.57 runners per race.

The Southern California racing circuit has experienced a decline in race-ready horses in the last year because of stricter training and medication rules following a series of equine fatalities at Santa Anita last winter. The track is also facing competition for dirt horses from Oaklawn Park in Arkansas, which has a higher purse structure. In the spring, the circuit is expected to face competition for turf horses from lucrative meetings at Churchill Downs and Keeneland.