Delaware Owners' Day: Almost $900,000 Up For Grabs

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Purses are already pretty good at Delaware Park, but on Sept. 7, the annual owners' day sponsored by the Delaware Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, they'll be even more lucrative.

The 14-race owners' day program offers total purse money of $898,650. There will be 13 Thoroughbred races (the lowest purse at $24,000) and one event for Arabians.

The program will feature top sprinter Xtra Heat in the $150,000 Endine Handicap, a grade III event at six furlongs, as well as the DTHA Owners' Day Handicap and the George Rosenberger Memorial, both of which go for $100,000.

Here's a sampling of some other races on the card: A money allowance event will go for a staggering $79,000, and two maiden special weight races each will go for $58,000. A $16,000 to $14,000 claiming affair was split in two divisions, no doubt because the pot for each one is $42,000. The bottom Thoroughbred race on the program is a $5,000 claimer, but the purse is $24,000.

The Delaware Park program, which begins at noon, might be proof that money talks. In all, 168 horses were entered.

Purses average about $275,000 at Delaware Park, where horse racing has benefited from on-track slot machines since the mid-1990s.

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