The second half of Oaklawn's winter/spring meet will feature a sizeable additional purse increase. Beginning Mar. 10, purses will rise by as much as $5,000 as a result of continued good weather and strong fan support both in racing and gaming.
With this increase, maiden special weight races, which had been $68,000 at the start of the season, will now be worth $75,000–the highest in the country at this time of year. Open allowance races will be as high as $80,000.
Oaklawn's first purse increase of the year took effect Saturday, Feb, 20, when maiden special weight races were raised to $70,000 and open allowance races went to a minimum of $73,000. Oaklawn also raised the purses of three stakes by $50,000–the GIII Honeybee S., the GIII Razorback H. and GII Azeri S. The Razorback and Azeri (now worth $350,000 each) share the card with the $900,000 GII Rebel S. Mar. 19.
The sunny, unseasonably warm weather this meet–in comparison with 2015, when the track lost seven days to winter weather–has led to across the board increases. Through Feb. 27, on-track handle was up 22% to $17,170,825 and total handle was up 9% to $82,553,112. The weather has also led to a 31% in attendance, with 237,650 people coming through the gates halfway into the season.
“It's exciting heading into the second half of our racing season with such strong momentum, knowing that our biggest days of the meet are still ahead,” said Director of Racing David Longinotti. “The Rebel Day card Mar. 19 will offer $1.6 million in stakes purses and there will be $2 million in stakes purses Arkansas Derby Day Apr. 16.”
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