NEWS
Colonial cuts purses for Virginia Derby, Turf Cup
Posted: Friday, February 29, 2008 3:55 PM
Colonial Downs has cut purses for the Virginia Derby (G2) and Colonial Turf Cup (G3) in an effort to avoid further overnight purse reductions during its 45-day live meeting that begins on June 9.
The purse for the Virginia Derby, a 1 1/4-mile turf race that is the New Kent, Virginia, track’s signature event, will be $750,000, a $250,000 reduction. The purse for the Colonial Turf Cup, a 1 3/16-mile turf race, will be $600,000, a $150,000 reduction.
Both races are for three-year-olds.
“The Derby and the Turf Cup, I think I’ll get the same type of horses I would have done before,” Colonial Downs General Manager Iain Woolnough told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “It’s just that there aren’t many $1-million races out there, so it’s a setback on that front.”
Total purses are expected to average approximately $200,000 per day at Colonial Downs, which is adding five days of live racing this year. The $400,000 in purse money saved by reducing the purses for the Colonial Turf Cup and Virginia Derby will be put into overnight purses, some of which have also been cut.
“The off-track handle, the simulcast handle, is not doing well right now,” Woolnough said. “It’s not doing well nationwide. It’s just not there.”
