NEWS

Industry News

Most Popular Stories

Most E-mailed Stories

Indiana Downs increases purses by 30%

Posted: Sunday, June 27, 2010 3:33 PM

Indiana Downs will boost purses for Thoroughbreds for the remainder of the 2010 race meeting, effective June 29.

The Shelbyville, Indiana, track will increase purses by 30% on all open and state-restricted races, with the exception of both open and state-bred stakes races, which will remain unchanged. Also, all $5,000 claiming races will increase by 15%.

On all Indiana Breed Development races, except the remaining stakes races, both the base-purse subsidy from the track purse account and the amount provided by the Thoroughbred Development Fund will rise by 30%.  The supplement that Indiana-breds can earn in open races also is being raised to 40% of the purse for the first three finishers, up from the current 25%.
 
“This will be a great shot in the arm for our horsemen, I think this will help a lot of people who have a had a challenging meet,” said Butch Cook, director of Thoroughbred racing at Indiana Downs. “The marketplace for horses is also very competitive right now; hopefully, this will help generate even more interest in our racing product.”

“Many of our horsemen have had a trying meet,” Indiana Downs General Manager Jon Schuster said. “We lost a few partial cards, and two entire cards, due to complications from unprecedented, torrential rainfall.  We’ve had about 16 inches of rain out here in the month of June alone—and there are still five days left; the norm for the whole month is only three inches.

“We also lost partial cards to persistent, heavy lightning, and we lost dozens of turf races, all of which significantly reduced starts for our horsemen,” Schuster said. “This increase should help some of those affected by these circumstances.” 

The race meet concludes on Wednesday, July 14.