Will this help the quality of Winter racing?

[miff]

These purse increases were projected to be even higher a few years ago.Clueless Clowns at NYRA bailed out again. Should see better quality during the winter, would be a shame to give most of this new money to the same maiden claiming NY Bred slow rat garbage that dominated NY winter racing for the last few years.

\"Major Purse Increases Expected at Aqueduct\"

By Blood-Horse Staff

The New York Racing Association has announced that total purses for the 2012 winter/spring meet at Aqueduct are expected to increase by approximately $8.6 million, or 36%, over this year's meet.

The new purse structure, which will go into effect on Jan. 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% 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," said NYRA president and CEO Charles Hayward. "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 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," said NYRA vice president and director of racing P. J. Campo. "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 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:

• Allowance n2x - $69,000 for routes, $64,000 for sprints, up from $47,000 and $46,000
• Allowance n2x (New York-breds) - $59,000 for routes, $54,000 for sprints, up from $43,000 and $42,000
• Allowance n1x - $67,000 for routes, $62,000 for sprints, up from $45,000 and $44,000
• Allowance n1x (New York-breds) - $57,000 for routes, $52,000 for sprints, up from $41,000 and $40,000
• Maiden special weight - $65,000 for routes, $60,000 for sprints, up from $43,000 and $42,000
• Maiden special weight (New York-breds) - $55,000 for routes, $50,000 for sprints, up from $39,000 and $38,000
• $10,000 claiming - $31,000 for routes, $30,000 for sprints, up from $21,000 and $20,000