? for Covel, TGJB, Barry irwin and other owners

[martoon]

Hey guys, wanted to ask you horse owners something about this Monmouth meet.  I was at first so happy to hear they were paying out $1500 to last place in every race as that really helps pay the bills if you have one racing.  What I didn\'t realize at the time is that they are apparently taking these $1500 payouts from the winners and 2nd place finishers purses.  It is mostly industry standard that the winner gets 60% and 2nd place 20% of the purse, But at Monmouth it can be significantly less especially if it\'s a big field.. For example look at yesterday\'s 4th race.  Purse was $39,250.  Normally the winner would get $23,550 but in this case they only got $16,500.  That\'s a pretty big difference for a win.  In essence the winner was only running for a $27,500 purse.  So the question to owners is would you rather have your win purses reduced so significantly or is it worth that reduction to be able to have that last place bonus payment?  I haven\'t raced there yet but I think I\'d be kind of disappointed to not get rewarded industry standard if you beat that increased competition and huge fields these purses are attracting.

[SoCalMan2]

To my understanding, owners are acutely aware of what the win payout is and choose their races by the win payout (unless they are not shooting to win).  Therefore, they don\'t really look at races based on what the announced purse is but rather as what the winner gets.  This is very tricky track to track.  For example, at Turfway, for the NW1X allowances, the purse is $22k.  However, a significant fraction of that purse is only for Kentucky-breds (like half), so it is really only an $11k allowance race for all the non-kentucky-breds.  This phenomenon exists in other states.  Also, the way each state handles state bred bonuses is different -- for example, in NY most of the state bred money goes to state bred restricted races.  At PHA, there are almost no state bred races, but there is a very rich bonus for PA breds that hit the board in open races (like 40% on top of the stated purse).  Long story short, the payout down to last is not the only thing from state to state that affects what winners get and I think most owners do the math and look at what they would get if they win and compare that with their alternatives.  That is my two cents for what it is worth, hope it helps.

[SoCalMan2]

The reason the win payout is so important is that it is the money you are getting in exchange for losing a condition.  With the exception of stakes horses, huge value is stored in conditions, so you care about how much you are getting for losing the condition.  The silver lining to place and show purse payout is that you get to run for the condition again.

[martoon]

Socal.. I understand those state-bred bonues in purse structures.  It\'s just that with Monmouth when they announced their huge purses, everybody came running with their horses. And I doubt a lot of them realized the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place purse reductions at the time.  And they get apparently get reduced incrementally for each horse entered in the race to cover those $1500 unplaced payouts.  I may be wrong but that looks like how they are doing it.   So while a 39K purse is listed for a claiming race, it sounds more attractive than it is if you win it.  Because it could be only a 27k total purse for the winner and it\'s a much harder race than say a 25k purse claimer at Penn Natl that would be much easier competition in both talent and field size. The trade off is you still get $1500 even if you finish last.

[miff]

Why not just enter your claimer(regarless of claiming price) every day they run and pick up $1500 a pop.

[Boscar Obarra]

I always thought  there may be some owners that were very happy to run 2/3 for extended periods for just this  reason.

[martoon]

I\'ve heard some trainers talk about and joke about that but haven\'t really seen anyone do it...  If you\'re especially an owner-trainer with low overhead that\'s definitely a profitable plan for this meet.