Racing NSW Announces Stakes Back to Normal Levels from July 1st 2020

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NSW prizemoney announcements

Brad Bishop@bradbishop12

1 June, 2020

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Racing New South Wales on Monday detailed its plans around prizemoney, including the restoration or pre-COVID-19 levels and feature-race stakes for the 2020 Spring Carnival.

Russell Balding, chairman of Racing NSW, detailed the plans, which include maintaining prizemoney levels for the Sydney spring.

The Everest, which will be run on October 17, will be run for a record $15 million and the October 31 Golden Eagle will again be worth $7.5 million.

Balding also revealed that prizemoney levels would return to pre-COVID-19 levels from July 1 with the breakdown as follows:

Metropolitan Saturdays – Restored from $100,000 to $125,000. Metropolitan Midweek – Restored from $45,000 to $50,000, Highway Races – Restored from $67,500 to $75,000 . Provincial Races - Restored from $31,500 to $35,000. Country Showcase Races – Restored from $27,000 to $30,000. Country TAB Races – Restored from $20,000 to $22,000

“Collectively, the industry has done a great job at ensuring that racing has continued during these uncertain times,” Balding said.

“Industry participants across all sectors complied with the very strict and successful bio-security measures adopted by Racing NSW, which were critical to enabling racing to continue during COVID-19.

“This in turn meant that wagering turnover, which is the main source of funding for prizemoney, was not as adversely impacted as initially feared, such that Racing NSW is in the financial position to be able to restore prizemoney levels much sooner than expected.”

Racing NSW also confirmed its spring program would mirror that of 2019 with the Golden Rose to be run on September 26, the Epsom Handicap and The Metropolitan on October 3 and the Spring Champion Stakes on October 10.

“The confirmation of racing dates enables industry participants to move forward with certainty,”