Upcoming meets at Santa Anita, Los Alamitos get purse increases

Overnight purses will increase at the forthcoming Santa Anita spring and Los Alamitos summer meetings.

Santa Anita’s spring meeting runs from April 18 to June 15. The Los Alamitos summer meeting begins a three-week season on June 20. Both tracks will have higher prize money than the corresponding meetings in 2024.

The added prize money is available from betting revenue through account wagering and simulcast locations throughout the state that has been consolidated and directed to Southern California tracks and purse accounts at those venues. Previously, part of that money was devoted to Northern California racing.

There is no racing scheduled in Northern California in coming months after the permanent closure of Golden Gate Fields last June and the cancellation of a proposed winter-spring meeting on the Alameda county fair grounds in Pleasanton. An autumn meeting at Pleasanton had lower-than-expected business.

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The only potential race meeting in Northern California this year is at the Humboldt county fair in Ferndale in late August and early September.

Due to the redirected monies, Santa Anita announced an average purse increase of 8 percent at its current winter-spring meeting, effective Feb. 28. The meeting ends on Sunday, leading to a short respite before the spring meeting.

In February, Santa Anita said an increase in handle at the current meeting contributed to higher purse levels. In a press release issued on Wednesday, the track said handle has increased 4 percent this year.

At the forthcoming Santa Anita spring meeting, many purses will be equal to the start of the current winter-spring meeting in late December.

A maiden race will be worth $60,000, down from the current level of $65,000, but higher than $54,000 at the 2024 spring meeting.

A first-condition allowance race will be worth $61,000 this spring, compared to the current figure of $67,000 and $55,000 last spring. A $32,000 claimer will have a purse of $37,000, up from $34,000 last spring, but lower than the current prize of $40,000.

The track has offered different purse levels in recent years for the winter-spring and spring meetings.

The purse increases in February and for this spring at Santa Anita are a reversal from a decline in prize money levels at all Southern California tracks in recent years because of purse overpayments caused by declining handle.

California tracks do not have the benefit of ancillary revenue from casinos, slot machines or sports betting that have boosted purses at a majority of North American venues. California tracks have sought to install historical horse racing machines to add revenue, but such a scenario is not likely in the short-term, officials said earlier this year.

At Los Alamitos this summer, a maiden race will be worth $45,000, an increase from $4,000 at the 2024 summer meeting, and $6,000 higher than the track’s most recent meeting in December.

A $16,000 claimer will be worth $25,000 compared to $21,000 last summer and $20,000 in December.

Many purse levels at the summer meeting at Los Alamitos are equal to the track’s 2023 summer meeting.

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