Prizemoney increases for Country & Provincial racing

Increases in minimum prizemoney for Country TAB and Provincial race meetings that were announced in November last year will take effect from Friday, 1 July 2016.

Minimum prizemoney for Provincial meetings will be increased by $5,000 or 23% to $27,000 per race. Country TAB meetings have been increased from $15,000 to $20,000 in prizemoney, also an increase of $5,000 or 33%.

“These increases are part of a package of more than $21 million in prizemoney increases for Country TAB and Provincial races,” said Racing NSW Chief Executive, Mr Peter V’landys AM.

“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. We particularly thank Troy Grant for his leadership on this matter.”

Showcase Meetings

Racing in Country NSW will benefit from Country Showcase meetings to be launched with the first of these to be run at Coffs Harbour on 4 August 2016.

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

In many instances Showcase meetings will staged on emerging Cup or Feature meetings at country racecourses.

This series of meetings starts in August with the Coffs Harbour Cup, Narromine Cup and Taree Cup meetings. A full schedule of emerging country features racedays to hold Showcase meetings is included at the end of this media release.

“The Showcase meetings provide excellent opportunities to focus greater attention on some of NSW’s emerging country cup meetings,” said Mr V’landys.

“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.

“These prizemoney increases, along with previous minimum prizemoney increases, have seen an increase in minimum Country TAB prizemoney of 110% since 2012,” Mr V’landys concluded.