Country race clubs such as Goulburn have been given a leg-up with news this week of a boost in prizemoney for country race meetings for the 2018/19 racing season.
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TAB meetings at tracks such as Goulburn will now carry an extra $2000 in prize money per race.
That equates to an increase in prize money of around $285,000 next racing season for a club like Goulburn.
The estimate is based on 19 race meetings with an average of 7.5 races per meeting over the 2018/19 season.
Currently, prize money per race at country level is worth $20,000.
The announcement is part of a state-wide prize money increase delivered by Racing NSW.
Racing NSW is pumping $24 million in prize money into the industry across metropolitan, provincial and country racing sectors.
Goulburn District Race Club chief executive Robyn Fife said the news was a bona fide win for Goulburn’s growing thoroughbred racing community.
“We know how hard our local trainers and their staff work with their gallopers to get results for themselves and their owners,” Ms Fife said.
“This recognition is a great investment by Racing NSW.
“[It] will help clubs such as ours continue to attract quality race fields and support the industry at a local level.”
Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys said the announcements were a reflection on the commitment of the peak body to all industry participants.
“Prizemoney in NSW has increased by more than $130 million annually across a seven-year period, 2012 to 2018,” he said.
“The success of thoroughbred racing in NSW over this time is due in no small part due to the thousands of hard-working industry participants and the many thousands of owners that continue to subsidise the industry,” Mr V’landys said.
The majority of the increase in prize money will be for horses finishing fourth to tenth in races, bolstering returns to connections of the horses not finishing in the top three.
Racing NSW also revealed this week that a new race for country horses only called ‘The Kosciuszko’ will be run as a support race to ‘The Everest’.
‘The Everest’ is the world’s richest turf race, to be held at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney on October 13.
‘The Kosciuszko’ will be worth $1.3 million.
It will be restricted only to NSW country trained horses who will get a chance to compete on the biggest day of racing in Australia with more than $16 million of prize money on offer.
Goulburn’s final race meeting for the 2017/18 season will be held this Monday, July 23.
