Overnight purses at upcoming meetings at Los Alamitos and Santa Anita will be lower than the corresponding seasons a year ago, with declines ranging from 7 to 23 percent in some categories, according to condition books recently published by both venues. At the six-day Los Alamitos December meeting, which begins on Dec. 6 and runs through Dec. 15, a purse for a maiden race will be worth $39,000, down 13.3 percent from $45,000 during the same season in December 2023. Purses for such races were $41,000 at the track’s summer meeting and $40,000 at the September meeting. A first-condition allowance race will be worth $41,000, down 12.7 percent from $47,000 last December. The same race had purses of $44,000 in the summer and September. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. Some categories will have more drastic cuts. A $6,250 claimer for fillies and mares will be worth $11,500 in December, a sharp decline of 23 percent over the 2023 purse of $15,000. Tracks throughout California have dealt with alarming deficits in their purse pools in recent years as handle has failed to keep pace with projections. Racing officials in California have been working behind the scenes to develop a program to implement historical horse-racing machines that have been successful in boosting purses to record levels at tracks in states such as Arkansas and Kentucky. No formal announcement has been made in California of a proposed implementation of HHR machines. Santa Anita begins its marathon winter-spring meeting on Dec. 26, with prize money levels higher than its spring or autumn meetings, but less than the 2023-24 winter-spring season. The forthcoming winter-spring meeting has 49 days of racing, followed by a 29-day spring meeting. At the winter-spring meeting, a maiden race will be worth $60,000, down 7.6 percent from $65,000 at the start of the 2023-24 meeting, but higher than $54,000 purses at the spring or autumn meetings. On a year-over-year basis, a first-condition allowance race will be worth $61,000 at the forthcoming meeting compared to $67,000 last year, a decline of 8.9 percent. Those races were worth $55,000 at the spring and autumn meetings. A $16,000 claimer for non-winners of two will be worth $22,000 this winter, a decline of 12 percent from a $25,000 purse last year. Last week, Santa Anita announced the stakes schedule for both the forthcoming winter-spring and spring meetings, eliminating 11 races that were worth $100,000 each and cutting the purses of several notable races. For example, the Santa Anita Derby will be worth $500,000, a decline of $250,000 from earlier this year. Overall, the track will offer stakes worth $1.675 million less than what was offered at the 2023-24 winter-spring season and the spring meeting earlier this year. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.