It was largely in an effort to encourage larger fields in these circumstances that many American state racing associations began changing their purse-distribution formats during the last three decades of the 20th century.
In 1975, the state of Florida enacted a purse-distribution format that has had revolutionary implications for the sport of horse racing in the United States: Its adopted plan provided 1% of the purse to all finishers in the race lower than fourth; this meant that the percentages paid out to the horses finishing second, third and fourth (but not first) became variable, depending upon the size of the field.
This system is still in use at all of the state's thoroughbred tracks today, although a slight modification in the actual percentages (resulting in the second-place share being increased at the expense of the third and/or fourth) was made in 2005.
[3] The Breeders' Cup made a change along these lines in 2016, increasing the number of purse-earning runners from five to eight, the sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-place finishers each receiving 1% of the purse.
[4] Australia has also adopted American-style innovations in dividing its purses in thoroughbred horse races, paying the top eight finishers at some tracks and even ten at others, with the awards for 6th through 8th (or 6th through 10th) the same regardless of the actual placing within that segment — sometimes 1% each, other times a fixed dollar amount.
The practice of paying at least some purse money to unplaced horses has not yet spread to European racing jurisdictions, however.
In the past, added money was a more significant portion of the winnings of major races, and increased the disparity between the amounts paid to the first place horse and the second.
Churchill Downs paid some added money on top of the guaranteed amount in 1996 due to a large field, but not in 1997.