Santa Anita opening day again delayed, but there are plenty of storylines to follow

People place bets at Santa Anita Park, where purses have declined along with the number of horse races and a lack of money from off-site betting.

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Determining the purse for 34 of the 35 graded stakes races at Santa Anita is, at least for riders, maddeningly simple: Just look up the minimum purse required in North America.

For a first-year race, that’s $300,000. It drops to $200,000 for Level 2 races and $100,000 for Level 3 races.

Even the lone local exception, the Santa Anita Derby, “only” pays $500,000 after offering $750,000 from 2021 through 2024. The current amount is half the purse offered for the top 3-year-old races at Gulfstream Park (Florida Derby) and Fair Grounds (Louisiana Derby), and only a third of what Oaklawn Park pays for the Arkansas Derby.

Last year, the Santa Anita Derby attracted only five entries, reducing the number of Kentucky Derby qualifying points available in the race. This almost prevented Baeza, who finished second to Journalism in the Arcadia race, from qualifying for the Derby (he only made it into the field after another horse scratched and ended up placing third).

It’s the same story for older horses, where Gulfstream is offering the $3 million Pegasus World Cup next month as well as turf races for $1 million and $500,000. Oaklawn Park offers a half-dozen races worth at least $500,000 (two at $1.25 million), and Fair Grounds offers three between $250,000 and $500,000. No Level 3 race at any of these tracks offers less than $150,000.

All of this makes it more difficult for Santa Anita to attract top horses from those states, who pad their purses with slot or casino money that is not available to California racetracks. Santa Anita, however, increased its purses at this meeting for inaugural races and allowances.