March 16th 1996

[Calzone Lord]

A Saturday date I just picked out at random from 1996.

Here are the Maiden Special Weight purses from tracks that ran on that day.


Santa Anita $39,000
Turfway Park $37,200
Aqueduct $29,000
Gulfstream $28,000
Bay Meadows $28,000
Oaklawn $20,000
Sportsman's Park $20,000
Laurel Park $17,500
Suffolk $11,000
Garden State Park $11,000
Remington Park $9,350
Thistledowns $9,100
Penn National $8,400
Sam Houston $6,600
Beulah Park $6,580
Turf Paradise $5,700
Tampa Bay Downs $4,200 (An N2L Allowance race had a $4,500 purse)
Fonner Park $4,000
Portland Meadows $3,700

Yakima Meadows had a maiden claiming race with a $2,700 purse - No MSW race that day.


That's all a MSW purse was worth at Tampa for the '96 meet - $4,200. Had they not reduced takeout from 28% on exotics - they would have kept their spot trailing tracks like Thistle, Sam Houston, and Beulah... and just edging out places like Fonner Park and Portland Meadows.

The MSW purse at Tampa is $25,000 today -- and Freddy is right in saying that 25K is peanuts - but it's all relative and they didn't need Slots.

[philcski]

Turfway was $37K? Is that right? They are half that now for most of the meet.

[Calzone Lord]

Yeah - I was surprised by that as well

[Calzone Lord]

Originally Posted by philcski

Turfway was $37K? Is that right? They are half that now for most of the meet.

By the way Phil - I just looked.

Here was Turfway Park's takeout than: 16% on WPS and 19% on all exotics.

Here is Turfway Park's Takeout now: 17.5% on WPS and 22% on all exotics.


So - at some point over the last 15 years - Turfway decided to raise its WPS takeout by 1.5% and it's exotic takeout by 3%.

Nice move, dipsh!ts. Tampa Bay Downs does double your handle now.

[philcski]

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord

By the way Phil - I just looked.

Here was Turfway Park's takeout than: 16% on WPS and 19% on all exotics.

Here is Turfway Park's Takeout now: 17.5% on WPS and 22% on all exotics.


So - at some point over the last 15 years - Turfway decided to raise its WPS takeout by 1.5% and it's exotic takeout by 3%.

Nice move, dipsh!ts. Tampa Bay Downs does double your handle now.

So they were in line with CD and Keeneland previously? Considering KEE owns a good portion of TP I wonder why they changed it.

[Calzone Lord]

Originally Posted by philcski

So they were in line with CD and Keeneland previously? Considering KEE owns a good portion of TP I wonder why they changed it.

Yes. According to old DRF Charts.

[Cannon Shell]

The MSW purse for the vast majority of the Tampa is not 25k. It is closer to 17k with 2k FL bred money added.


In 05 the nw1x was 14500 and the nw2x was 15700 for FL breds

In 08 the nw1x was 20200 for FL breds

In 11 the nw1x was 21200 for FL breds

subtract 2-3k from the FL bred purses for the actual purse

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by philcski

Turfway was $37K? Is that right? They are half that now for most of the meet.

A lot of that purse was KTDF money.

[philcski]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

A lot of that purse was KTDF money.

Makes sense...

How much is KTDF money now? CD is like $10kish per race right?

[phystech]

Interesting - Laurel's 1996 MSW purse was shown as @$17k. Today it is @$30k, and that does not include a $5k bonus for MD-bred winners.

During the time of Tampa's greatly increased handle, Laurel's has dramatically decreased. Yet, Lau's purses are much better.

So, again, why are Tampa's purses so bad?? Where is all the money going?

[Calzone Lord]

Originally Posted by phystech

Interesting - Laurel's 1996 MSW purse was shown as @$17k. Today it is @$30k, and that does not include a $5k bonus for MD-bred winners.

During the time of Tampa's greatly increased handle, Laurel's has dramatically decreased. Yet, Lau's purses are much better.

So, again, why are Tampa's purses so bad?? Where is all the money going?

Cannon Shell's take:

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

Tampa Bays purses arent higher because the TB HBPA is controlled by hacks from Suffolk who dont want purses to get too much higher because they know wont be able to compete and even more legit trainers will want to show up for better money. They have no objection to increases to the stakes purses because they are mostly won by ship-ins and with the handle increasing they have to use the money somewhere.

Also...

The stakes programs in Maryland - outside of Preakness day - has come under very hard times. Tampa went from a weak stakes schedule -- to now having two different Graded Stakes Derby prep's -- they also have very good stakes throughout all divisions... even turf sprinters.

Going from N1X alw races with $4,500 purses - to hosting great stretch duels between Street Sense and Any Given Saturday or Gio Ponti and Karelian - it's a step in the right direction on that front.