by John Amoia, for Batavia Downs

Batavia, NY — A purse reduction will take place on Nov. 2 at Batavia Downs Casino.

Purse money for the final 15 race dates of the 2011 summer-fall meet will be reduced by 10 percent across the board, track officials announced today.

“Nobody wants to cut purses but we simply need to right the ship heading into next year,” Todd Haight, General Manager of Live Racing said. “We ended the 2010 season with an overpayment of purses and if we aren’t proactive we’d have been in the same boat this year.

“We met with Bruce (Tubin, President of the Western New York Harness Horsemen’s Association) and all agreed this was the best course of action. Hopefully this will be the only correction that needs to be made. Moving forward, with expansion of our gaming floor taking place over the Winter, we should be in a much better position when the horses return in July of 2012.”

Horseman and racing fans are reminded that heading into November live racing will be conducted on a three night a week basis, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, through Dec. 3. Post time is 6:40 p.m. except for Nov. 5 when there will be a special 7:10 p.m. first race post time, to accommodate the Breeders’ Cup classic.