The New York Racing Association (NYRA) has announced that total purses for
the 2012 winter/spring meet at Aqueduct are expected to increase by
approximately $8.6 million, or 36 percent, over this year’s meet.
The new purse structure, which will go into effect on January 1, 2012, is
possible due to the expected fall opening of Genting’s Resorts World New York
Casino at Aqueduct. During the first year of the casino’s operations, 6.5
percent of the revenue from the Video Lottery Terminals must go to NYRA’s purse
structure.
“The 2012 Aqueduct winter/spring meet marks a new era for our purse
structures,” NYRA President and CEO Charles Hayward said. “The opening of
Genting’s Resorts World New York Casino is a highly anticipated event that will
benefit all of the stakeholders at Aqueduct, Belmont Park, and Saratoga Race
Course. Increased purses will help bring more top owners, trainers, and horses
to our tracks, create larger fields for our customers to wager on, and generate
higher handle for our races.”
The daily average purse structure for the 2012 Aqueduct winter/spring meet
will increase to approximately $375,000 per day, $100,000 more than the
approximately $275,000 that was distributed per day during this year’s meet.
“Aqueduct’s winter/spring meet is very important for all of our year-round
owners and trainers,” NYRA Vice President and Director of Racing P.J. Campo
said. “We are hopeful that the substantial purse increases will result in
increased participation from horsemen during the meet.”
While every race category will see purse increases for the 2012 Aqueduct
winter/sprint meet, there will be different increases depending on the distance,
with route races having larger purses.
Under the new purse structure, the highest overnight purses will be overnight
stakes, which will have a purse of $80,000 for routes and $75,000 for sprints,
up from $60,000 during this year’s Aqueduct winter/spring meet.
A few more examples of the purse increases are as follows:
and $46,000
sprints, up from $43,000 and $42,000
and $44,000
sprints, up from $41,000 and $40,000
$43,000 and $42,000
sprints, up from $39,000 and $38,000
$21,000 and $20,000