Santa Anita opening day again delayed, but there

Figuring out the purse for 34 of the 35 graded stakes races at Santa Anita is, for horsemen anyway, maddeningly simple: Just look up the minimal purse required in North America.

For a Grade 1 race, that’s $300,000. It drops to $200,000 for Grade 2 races and $100,000 for Grade 3s.

Even the one local exception, the Santa Anita Derby, pays “only” $500,000 after offering $750,000 from 2021-24. The current quantity is half the purse on offer for the top 3-year-old races at Gulfstream Park (Florida Derby) and Fair Grounds (Louisiana Derby), and just one-third what Oaklawn Park pays for the Arkansas Derby.

Last 12 months the Santa Anita Derby attracted only 5 entries, which decreased the quantity of Kentucky Derby qualifying factors accessible in the race. That virtually stored Baeza, who completed second to Journalism in the Arcadia race, from qualifying for the Derby (he made it in the sector only after another horse was scratched and wound up inserting third).

It’s the same story for older horses, where Gulfstream gives the $3-million Pegasus World Cup next month plus turf races for $1 million and $500,000. Oaklawn Park has a half-dozen races value at least $500,000 (two at $1.25 million), and Fair Grounds has three between $250,000 and $500,000. No Grade 3 race at any of those tracks gives less than $150,000.

All of that makes it tougher for Santa Anita to entice top horses from those states, which increase purses with money from slot machines or casinos, one thing not accessible to California tracks. Santa Anita, however, has hiked its purses this assembly for maiden and allowance races.