I was reading an article TT ran concerning the statistics of racing for 2005. I've never had experience of a racing secretary, but this statistic to me seems to be a problem - "claiming races accounted for 66% of all races but distributed just 37.1% of all purses."
This could directly influence number of starts and field size.
Deciding the risk/reward factor is a common business decision, and I suspect many small breeder/owner operations are the ones that really feel the crunch of the above statistic. I would also suspect that the average number of starts - 6.5, fewest of all time - are directly related to the above economics.
Other alarming statistics - only 17.3% of all runners earned more than $25,000.
$824.7 million was spent for weanlings, yearlings, and two year olds while 2005 purses totaled 1.146 billion with total sales and average price both increasing.
It reminds me of the economics of inflation - too many dollars chasing too few goods (goods being purse structure).
The article headlines "for the first time in recent history, total purses, average purse, and average earnings per runner all decline.
Thoughts?
Purse Distribution
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