Trends in Horse Racing Fields and Their Effect on Purses

By Himanshu Joshi

image: depositphotos

In the last six decades, the horse racing field sizes have gone through tremendous innovations. There has been an enormous decline in the field size numbers. Field consisted of an average of 9 horses per field in 1950 to an average of eight horses in 2010. A sharper decline has also been seen in the average number of races a single horse runs per years. Research shows that the number declined from 11.31 in 1960 to only 6.2 in 2010. The decline in number of races a particular horse runs per year has a direct, declining impact on the size of the field.

If you think the decrease of the field sizes is rather insignificant, then you are terribly wrong. It has a direct impact on the handle. Even a single additional horse in a race can make a difference of up to $100,000 in the handle. Over the years, punters have shown immense interest in big field horse races. They regard the bigger fields as long shots as the payoff they get are usually larger than the ones in small field races.

Throughout the years, there has been a remarkable decline in the handle as a consequence of decline in the size of horse racing field. The handle, in turn, has an enormous, direct impact on the purses. The purses have extremely decreased in the last six decades. This has discouraged many horsemen from thorough breeding. They no longer see it as a lucrative business that it was before. However, as much as the overall purses have reduced, the average purse per horse has increased by 26.8% in the last decades. This is mainly because the field sizes are declining; hence the purses are shared by a small number of horses. In the past, the purses were distributed among so many horses due to the big fields and as such, the average purse per horse was not a big amount.

Many horsemen are no longer as motivated as they were previously to breed more horses. The utter interest in them has simply died, and many of them are looking for other more welcoming sources of income. Times when they had to depend on purses have passed. For the horse owners who have the best performing horses, then the last few years have not been so rosy to them. The first place purse distribution has been constant at 60%, whether the horse race field is small or big. Therefore, the horse owners receive higher purses in big field size races where the handle is high.

Horsemen organizations should be geared towards increasing the average field sizes in a race. Punters are particularly attracted to big field size races. Therefore, a little boost in the field size will certainly elevate the handle. Bigger the handle in distinct horse races, the larger the purses that each horse owner receives. An increase in the purses will certainly boost the horsemen's' morale, and more horses will be thorough bred hence an increase in the average field sizes. This is a never ending cycle that we must incorporate back to the equestrian sport if we want to get the most returns out of it.

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