Purse Hikes For Six Breeders Crowns

The Breeders Crown, harness racing’s year-end championship series, will raise purses on six of the 12 divisions of Breeders Crown races to be held at Harrah’s Hoosier Park in Anderson, Indiana, on Friday, Oct. 27 & Saturday, Oct. 28.

All four freshman events will go for $700,000 USD, a purse level not reached for those divisions since 2008. That makes the Breeders Crown the richest two-year-old events offered on the 2023 calendar, with the exception of the Mohawk Million for two-year-old trotters.

Mare pacers and trotters will race for $400,000 USD, the highest base purse for older distaffers in the 40-year history of the Breeders Crown and the highest for their division on the stakes calendar.

All three-year-old divisions and the Crown Trot and Crown Pace will maintain a purse structure of $600,000 USD.

In addition to lucrative purses, a Breeders Crown title has major implications in voting for year-end awards. In 2022, seven of the Dan Patch award winners were Breeders Crown champions. Should the heavy favourite for Horse of the Year, Bulldog Hanover, succeed, he will bring the total to 30 of 39 Horse of the Year winners also winning their Breeders Crown.

“As the racing and breeding businesses have flourished in the past several years so have the Breeders Crown championships enjoyed the support of the stallion nominators, breeders, owners and horse people,” said John Campbell, president of the Hambletonian Society, which owns and administers the Breeders Crown series.

Payments to participate in all Breeders Crown divisions are due Wednesday, Feb. 15 and can be found on ustrotting.com or Hambletonian.com.

“The two-year-old nominations were at record levels last year and in anticipation of that continued popularity, the Breeders Crown committee of the Society felt the purses could be raised to $700,000 across the board,” continued Campbell. "That support and the ability of our valued host tracks to present the Breeders Crown in a first-class manner has allowed the Breeders Crown event to continue to grow in stature and prestige and offer historically high purses.

“In recent years older mares have been an extremely competitive group and also featured full fields, so they also got a purse hike to $400,000.”

The Society’s mission statement since 1926 has focused on supporting and promoting the breeding of Standardbred horses. Keeping two-year-old purses at a high level benefits breeders and helps owners with a timely return on their investments.

The 2023 Breeders Crown will take place on the final two weekends in October at the host track of Harrah’s Hoosier Park in Anderson, Ind. The Midwest’s premier seven-eighths mile track is hosting Crown events for the third time, having previously held the 2017 and 2020 editions.     

The freshmen Breeders Crown finals take place Friday, Oct. 27 and the eight three-year-old and up events are set for Saturday, Oct. 28.  The 12 events feature $7.2 Million USD in estimated total purses