(a) Except as otherwise provided, every association which conducts a quarter horse race meeting or a harness horse race meeting shall pay a daily license fee at the rate of 0.4 percent of its daily conventional and exotic parimutuel handle.
(b) With respect to quarter horse meetings, all funds remaining from the deductions provided in Sections 19491, 19491.5, and 19610 after distribution of the license fee, shall be distributed 55 percent as commissions and 45 percent as purses. With respect to harness meetings, except for meetings conducted pursuant to Sections 19549.2 and 19549.6, the funds remaining from deductions provided in Section 19610, after distribution of the license fee, shall be distributed 59.5 percent as commissions and 40.5 percent as purses. For harness meetings conducted pursuant to Sections 19549.2 and 19549.6, the funds remaining from deductions provided in Section 19610, after distribution of the license fee, shall be distributed 50 percent as commissions and 50 percent as purses.
(c) Every association that conducted a quarter horse or Arabian horse racing meeting in the southern zone during the daytime prior to January 1, 1979, and thereafter conducts the meeting at night, shall be entitled to the following license fee adjustment:
For each 1 percent that the association’s average daily handle in the 1981 year, during the period from the commencement of the meeting to December 25, falls below its 1980 average daily handle during the same period, the amount of the license fee as set forth in subdivision (a) shall be reduced by 2 percent.
(d) Any association qualified to operate its meetings pursuant to Section 19612.6 shall be entitled to continue to distribute license fees, commissions, and purses as provided by that section.
(e) Notwithstanding subdivision (b), for every association that conducts a quarter horse meeting in the northern zone, the amount remaining after deduction of the state license fee shall be distributed between commissions and purses as agreed to by the association conducting the meeting and the organization representing the horsemen participating at the meeting. Every association conducting a quarter horse meeting in the northern zone may deduct an additional amount up to 1 percent of its conventional and exotic parimutuel pools to be distributed as commissions. The association may also deduct an additional 1 percent from the exotic parimutuel pools to be distributed as commissions and purses as agreed to by the association conducting the meeting and the organization representing the horsemen participating at the meeting.
(Amended by Stats. 1998, Ch. 335, Sec. 24. Effective January 1, 1999.)