'ALL SYSTEMS GO' FOR NEW SOUTH WALES RACING

By Graham Potter | Friday, July 1, 2016

New South Wales racing participants are smiling today.

It’s all systems go in the state with the financial landscape changing for the better on a number of levels from today, July 1 ... the start if the new financial year.

Prizemoney for provincial meetings is increased to $27 000 per race. Prizemoney for country TAB meetings has increased to $20 000 per race.

Country racing in New South Wales will also benefit from the launch of a series of Country Showcase meetings.

Showcase meetings will offer a minimum of $30,000 per race in prizemoney will be staged at various courses throughout NSW.

“Increases to minimum prizemoney and Country Showcase meetings come on top of the highly successful expansion of The Championships to include Country and Provincial racing and the implementation of Highway races at most metropolitan Saturday meetings,” Racing NSW CEO, Mr Peter V’landys said.

“These increases are part of a package of more than $21 million in prizemoney increases for Country TAB and Provincial races.

V’landys also noted that these prizemoney increases, along with previous minimum prizemoney increases, have seen an increase in minimum Country TAB prizemoney of 110% since 2012.

On top of that good news for country racing, the Australian Turf Club has announced that it will eliminate nomination and acceptance fees for all city, Listed races from August 1.

This reduction of costs to owners is another positive step embedded in the NSW Strategic Plan.

“The removal of nomination and acceptance fees on Listed races is a great start in reducing costs to owners with Listed races capturing the broadest participation among owners of any stakes races,” V'landys said.

“It is expected that the elimination of these costs will create an incentive for more horses to at least be nominated in these races and in turn provide a boost to field sizes in these events.”

And the bottom line …

“The prizemoney increases coincide with the second year of the phase-in of wagering parity. These increases would not have been possible without the Baird Government’s reduction in State wagering taxes to bring us in line with Victoria over the next five years,” V’landys acknowledged.

It all goes to show what can happen when interested parties work together for mutual benefit. It’s not rocket science really yet, sadly, there are others who seemingly have failed to grasp this simple principle.