 Racetrack operators had no choice but to drastically reduce the purse money being paid out which resulted in the Belles Stakes offering a purse in 1908 that was forty percent less than what it had been in earlier years.These small purses made horse racing unprofitable and impossible for even the most successful horse owners to continue in business.As such, for the 1909 racing season management of the Sheepshead Bay facility dropped some of its minor stakes races and used the purse money to bolster its most important events.