Racing NSW Announces $20M Purses Boost

In a further shot in the arm for the industry, Racing NSW has announced prizemoney increases of some $20 million annually and the creation of a new $100,000 Midway Race to be added to metropolitan Saturday race meetings. This announcement is highlighted by almost $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 $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 $100,000. With this announcement today, total annual prizemoney to be paid for country racing in NSW will now be more than $91 million which is an increase of $58 million (176%) since 2012. Country racing has received the largest increase of any sector over this time.

Sydney Saturday races will have a Mid Way Race programmed (pic: Steve Hart)