The purse for this year's Grade 1 Champion of Champions has been lowered to $600,000.

© William Zuazo

LOS ALAMITOS, CA–AUGUST 28, 2024–Ed Allred, the track owner and CEO of Los Alamitos Race Course, announced today that the purse for this year's Grade 1 Champion of Champions has been lowered to $600,000, a reduction of $100,000 from the previously announced $700,000 purse.

The $100,000 reduction is a direct result of the California Horse Racing Board's decision to impose a new formula for financing the Board's budget for the fiscal year 2024-25. The new formula increased the Los Alamitos Quarter Horse Racing Association's yearly operational costs by around $1 million dollars. The CHRB voted on the new formula at its June meeting.

Allred had previously discussed purse changes to the Champions of Champions. In a press release sent by Los Alamitos in February of this year, Allred said: "Racing in California could go through major changes this year and we must be proactive in making some hard decisions for the overall health of our racing program, particularly our historic stakes racing program. My goal remains to have as many Quarter Horse races as possible being held at Los Alamitos Race Course."

With a $600,000 purse, the Champion of Champions remains the richest race in the nation for older Quarter Horses by $250,000. The 2024 Champion of Champions will be held on Saturday, December 14.

Track officials have already extended invitations for this year's Champion of Champions to three of the nation's top older horses in Steve Holt and Jeff Jones' Empressum, winner of the Grade 1 Vessels Maturity and Grade 1 Go Man Go Handicap winner; Guns Up Racing's Jess Good Wine, winner of the Grade 1 Debbie Schauf Remington Park Invitational Championship and Grade 2 Mr Jet Moore Handicap; and Allred's London Toby, winner of the Grade 1 Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship and Restricted Grade 1 Spencer Childers California Breeders Championship. Additional invitations will be extended to selected winners of major Quarter Horse races nationwide.

For more information on the 2024 Champions of Champions, please contact the Los Alamitos Racing Office at 714-820-2788.

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For more information, please contact larace@losalamitos.com. You can also follow us on Twitter or Instagram at @losalracing or visit us online at www.losalamitos.com.