Give the Little Guys a Shot
July 17th, 2007Jude T. Feld
Racing’s elitists are in action again. This time, it is the North American members of the Society of International Thoroughbred Auctioneers.
The group has declared the minimum purse value to meet black-type catalog standards will increase from $45,000 to $50,000 in 2008. The increase, originally announced last July, was one of several changes aimed at maintaining standards of integrity and quality for North American black type.
Carl Hamilton, secretary of the International Cataloguing Standards Committee, said he wants racing secretaries to be reminded of the criteria.
“It’s everyone’s decision if they want their race to get SITA black type or not,†Hamilton said. “We want to make sure everyone is aware of the criteria and then make that decision consciously.â€
Currently, Keeneland never runs a stakes race with less than a $75,000 purse and Santa Anita’s overnight stakes are not less than $65,000 but these top-class tracks have massive handle and lots of dough in their coffers, so the ruling has virtually no effect on them or any other major track on the continent, most of whom card conditioned allowance races for $50,000.
Smaller tracks, like River Downs in Cincinnati, Ohio, work extremely hard to assemble competitive racecards and a solid stakes program. They have to struggle for every dollar in a market packed with entertainment options.
When SITA’s whims up the ante for them and many other smaller racing venues, it forces their racing departments to make hard choices about the number of stakes they offer.
Are not the owners who participate at these tracks entitled to win a stakes race once in a while, get some black type for their mares and foals and have a nice Saturday with their friends in the turf club?
What is the difference between a $45,000 stakes and a $50,000 one anyway? The same horses will participate either way.
The problem is, that if a small track has several $45,000 stakes and has to up the purses to $50,000 to make them qualified, they either have to miraculously come up with more dough, cut one or more stakes off the schedule to defray the expenses on the other ones or cut overnight purses to make up for the shortfall.
This is a lose-lose situation for everybody – Thoroughbred owners, breeders and the operators of small regional racetracks.
The major racetracks do have reason for concern however. If SITA decided that all Grade 1 races should carry a purse of $1 million, where would they get the money? Probably shift it from the overnight purses to the stakes program – once again, the small-time owner would be the one who gets screwed while the big stables get richer.
