The California Crown Stakes, run for $1 million last September, and two other stakes on the same program worth $750,000, will not be run for those values later this year, according to Santa Anita officials.
The California Crown was previously run as the $300,000 Awesome Again Stakes for 3-year-olds and older horses at 1 1/8 miles, a race that serves as a prep for the Breeders’ Cup Classic each autumn.
Later this year, the Awesome Again-California Crown race will be run as the Goodwood Stakes in recognition of the track’s previous association with the Oak Tree Racing Association, which leased Santa Anita for an autumn meeting from 1969 to 2009, officials said.
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The Awesome Again was known as the Goodwood Handicap or Goodwood Stakes from 1982 to 2011, during most of Oak Tree’s residency at Santa Anita. It was renamed the Awesome Again Stakes in 2012.
The purses for the Goodwood Stakes, and two Grade 2 races worth $750,000 last year – the John Henry Turf Championship and Eddie D Stakes – will be determined this summer, according to officials.
The John Henry Turf Championship and Eddie D Stakes were worth $200,000 in 2023.
The track’s decision not to run the California Crown for a seven-figure purse was first reported by Horse Racing Nation earlier this week.
The California Crown program, financially supported by the track’s parent company, 1/ST Racing, was designed as a counterpart to the $3 million Pegasus World Cup program held annually in January at Gulfstream Park, another track owned by 1/ST Racing.
Officials with 1/ST Racing stated in the past they hoped to make the California Crown an annual event. In a statement issued earlier this week, officials described the absence of the event this year as “a pause.”
“We have made the decision to pause the California Crown as we continue to have conversations with our event partners regarding the evolution of the overall brand,” the statement read, in part.
Track officials said earlier this week that overnight purses for the autumn meeting will be higher than the corresponding meeting in 2024.
Overnight purses at Santa Anita were increased in late March when revenue from betting through account wagering and simulcast locations throughout the state were consolidated and directed to Southern California tracks and purse accounts at those venues after the cessation of racing in Northern California.
Previously, part of that money was devoted to Northern California tracks and purses. Currently, no live racing is scheduled in Northern California this year.
Overnight purses for meetings at Del Mar and Los Alamitos are scheduled to be increased this summer.
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