In a further shot in the arm for the Australian racing industry, Racing NSW has announced prizemoney increases of some A$20 million annually and the creation of a new A$100,000 Midway Race to be added to metropolitan Saturday race meetings.
This announcement is highlighted by almost A$9 million of increases in prizemoney for country race meetings to be applied across all sectors of country racing, including non-TAB and Picnic races. Further, the creation of the A$100,000 Midway Races exclusively for horses from small to mid-sized NSW metropolitan and provincial stables to be run at metropolitan Saturday race meetings from 1 July 2021.
A point scoring system will be applied to such trainers based on the number and level of race of winners trained by them in the previous year to see if they meet the mid-size category. Prizemoney for TAB Highway races (which are for country-domiciled horses only) will also be increased to A$100,000.
The NSW Spring Racing Carnival from 2021 has also been enhanced, with increased prizemoney for a number of feature races, highlighted by the Epsom Handicap prizemoney increasing to A$1.5 million and a A$1 million bonus to any horse that is able to win both the Craven Plate and the Rosehill Gold Cup in the same year.
Additional feature races have been introduced to further strengthen the revamped Spring Racing Carnival introduced by Racing NSW, which is headlined by The Everest and The Golden Eagle in the metropolitan area with The Hunter and The Gong featuring in the regional areas.
New prizemoney from July 2021 is displayed below , with increases from 2020 in brackets
- Epsom Handicap A$1,500,000 (A$500,000)
- Villiers Stakes A$750,000 (A$500,000)
- Flight Stakes A$750,000 (A$250,000)
- Craven Plate A$750,000 (A$250,000)
- Rosehill Gold Cup A$750,000 (A$250,000)
- New Spring feature races x 2 A$500,000 each (A$1,000,000)
- Lead up to The Hunter and The Gong A$200,000 each (A$400,000)
- Bonus for winning both the Craven Plate & Rosehill Gold Cup A$1,000,000 (A$1,000,000)
With this announcement, total annual prizemoney to be paid for country racing in NSW will now be more than A$91 million which is an increase of A$58 million (176%) since 2012. Country racing has received the largest increase of any sector over this time.
