They probably make 40 cents per race call there.
The toughness of the horses there has a lot to do with the breeding and small purses.
I was looking over the pp's of the horses in the '35 Kentucky Derby field ... you had horses making career starts number 44, 42, and 38.
* Trainer F. M. Bray was so fearful that his 44th time starter would not be fit enough for the Kentucky Derby - that he actually worked him 10 furlongs two days before the race (only the most recent workout appears in old forms - and it's under the horses name)
* Blackbirder raced 35 times before November of his 2yo season! :
* McCarthy looks like a pus$y by comparison :
