With live racing scheduled to return to Suffolk Downs for a series of festivals July 9-10, August 6-7 and September 3-4, the Boston oval will offer purses of over $500,000 each day as well as incentives for trainers and owners participating in the races, it was announced Tuesday.
For all of the races, base purses will be paid back to fifth place. For those owners with horses finishing in the first five positions, they will receive an additional $300 to supplement the cost of shipping to Suffolk Downs. For the owners of horses finishing from sixth-place to last, they will receive “runner's reward” of $1,000 for participating in the festival. Trainers will receive an incentive of a $200 bonus for each starter.
Each weekend will feature steeplechase racing on Saturdays and there will be stakes races restricted to horses bred in Massachusetts on both days. The featured event of the opening day card on Saturday, July 9 will be the $75,000 Jill Jellison Memorial Stakes–a five furlong turf race restricted to fillies and mares and named in honor of Jill Jellison, a pioneer member of the local jockey colony who passed away after a battle with cancer last year.
Last year, the track held three single live racing and food truck festival days which drew over 10,000 people each day. More information can be found at the Suffolk Downs website.
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
