Philly Park Purse Surge

$5 for a large pizza, $1.20 for a pack of smokes and less than $500 a month for a nice one bedroom. The numbers are my fondest memories of my time in Philadelphia. Cheap living in an honest working class city. At that time the racing world had an even larger chasm between New York and Philly. Philly Park was barely holding on at the bottom of the racing class ladder while NYRA was the king of the new world. Ten years later and it looks like the roles have reversed. In a huge coup that nobody has even noticed New York is now the backwater with Philly presenting the better purses and potentially the better product.

Usually I have no interest in Philly park but today (Tuesday)they have a overnight stakes that has attracted nice sprinters such as Saratoga Russell, Cherokee Country and Joey P. Top New York jocks such as Ramon Dominguez, Lezcano and Channing Hill canceled a day of leisure and headed down I-95 to ride in the $75K Valley Forge Stakes. Usually I spend Tuesday with a nice book but I followed the lead of masterclass jockey Dominguez to Philly to cap the race and have a look. One glance at the rest of the card and something hit me- Philly Purses have surpassed NYRA purses. This is quite the deal for the horsemen. You have to have rocks in your heads - or a slow NY bred- to run in New York.


So not only are Philly based owners paying less for a large pie at their local pizzeria but they are also paying less in trainer day rates while cashing in larger purses. This is a great deal for the horsemen of Bensalem Pennsylvania. If I could have made more money driving the limo in Philly than New York I never would have left Philly. In New York we pay more for less with an onerous tax burden. However the lure of New York is that we have the old world at our finger tips while making more money than anywhere else in the country. This may have been true in the past but New York along with New York racing is living on past glory. The big lure of New York is the class racing but those days are also over. With the dilapidated facility in Ozone Park, inferior purses and a corrupt regime that has presided over a 9 year slots farce the time for New York to be a backwater is upon us. People just have not realized it yet.

Purse Comparison

• Condition Philly park purse Aqueduct purse
• Maiden 12K $22K $19K
• MSW 1 Mile $44K $44K
• CLM 7.5K $22K $16
• CLM 25K $36K $33K
• CLM35K $39 $38
• STK $75K $65K

If you are running a PA. Bred the deal is even better:

Now, somebody who is really invested in the business can actually make more money in a single race than the total purse. Imagine a race with a $42,000 purse. The winning owner gets 60 percent, or $25,200. If the horse is a Pennsylvania-bred, the owner gets a 40 percent bonus off the winnings. Now, he has $35,280. If he's the breeder, he gets another 20 percent of that. Now, he has $42,333 on a $42,000 purse. If the owner happens to stand the stallion in Pennsylvania, he gets another 10 percent.

What is fueling this purse surge? When I lived in Philly ten years ago the purses where less than half of NYRA purses. 18K claimers ran for $6K and maiden specials for 18K. The slots in Philly have been a raging success. Philly Park's casino opened in December 2006. In the first 3 weeks, players bet $175 million on the slots. In the fiscal year ending in June 2007, they bet $1.666 billion. In the next fiscal year, they bet $5.8 billion. In the fiscal year just ended, they bet $10.9 billion. Revenue (winnings after the players are paid) was $144 million, $469 million and $825 million, respectively.

Are all of these slot players making their way to the Philly racetrack inflating handle? Surely $10.9 billion in slots handle would have a spillover effect into the racing handle? A crowded casino combined with better purses and better claiming races would surely inflate Philly Park handle to beyond what NYRA achieves. Surprisingly the wagering on Philly Park races is only a fraction of what Aqueduct handles even as the Aqueduct grandstand lies in decay and the racing is inferior. Bettors are loyal to NYRA regardless of the quality of the races. A cursory study of 3 days last week reveals that Aqueduct handled $21 million the three days they ran against Philly Park. Those same three days Philly Park handled a total of $3.6 million- a staggering chasm especially when you consider the racing at Philly might just be superior.

What we have here is a pure slot purse advantage for Philly Park. Unless bettors start patronizing Philly Park this is terrible for racing. All of the "meat and potatoes" claimers are running at Philly Park while NYRA is left with an unappetizing menu of New York breds and beaten claimers. NYRA is presenting an inferior product that will eventually disenfranchise the bettors if they haven't been chased away yet.

Few "diners" migrated to Philly Park. While the best "chefs" have been lured away to cook at Philly Park the food has not been a lure for the public. The Philly "chefs" are basically cooking for their own profit while their food is going strait to the trash without being sampled by the wagering public. Meanwhile up at Aqueduct the "chefs" are being pulled right out of the dregs of the culinary world. While the restaurant at Aqueduct remains full the food is no longer world class. It is only a matter of time before the wagering public realizes how far New York racing has fallen and they turn away from racing all together. Can Philadelphia Park progress from being anything other than a horsemen welfare venue? The key may be in luring the Preakness north and snagging the attention of the public. If a $75K overnight stakes can lure Power Cap a million dollar classic can lure the masses.