Horse racing: Harness racing given $30 million boost

Copy That winning the New Zealand Cup in 2022. Photo / Supplied

Harness racing has been given a $30 million shot in the arm that will see it now host two $1m races and with two new slot races set to reinvigorate Show Day.

Harness Racing New Zealand announced the huge stake increases in Christchurch on Friday as harness racing finally sees the full impact of the TAB/Entain deal, with the money to be spread across the board for total stakes boosts of around $10m a season for the next three years.

The code’s greatest event the New Zealand Cup will return to its rightful place as a $1m race, making it our equal richest harness race with the Race by Grins slot race at Cambridge in April.

In the bold new world of New Zealand racing stake increases for all codes the Cup, arguably New Zealand’s best race of any code, needed to be worth $1m to retain its relevance and it won’t be the only shot in the arm for Addington’s Cup week.

Two new $500,000 slot races for three-year-old pacers and trotters will be held on Show Day, while the Dominion Trot that day is boosted by $100,000 to $400,000 as the trotting gait starts to be rewarded for its continued growth and international appeal.

Show Day, which used to be the second biggest day on the harness racing calendar, has struggled to draw big crowds in recent years.

It has been a victim of the Canterbury agricultural show moving and the enormous growth of thoroughbred racing’s New Zealand Cup meeting at Riccarton the next day, which has become the second most popular day of Cup week.

Show Day will become a twilight fixture starting at 3pm and along with the Dominion and two slot races will also host the NZ Pacing Free-For-All.

The Grand Prix meeting which has been held at Addington the last two years on a Sunday in early December will now be spread over two Fridays in late November/December which will appeal far more to the corporates using the meetings as their annual Christmas party so should be guaranteed big crowds.

Those nights will include a $300,000 NZ Pacing Derby, $200,000 Trotting Derby and $225,000 Pacing Oaks.

Major developments in the north will include the Auckland Cup and National Trot returning to New Years Eve at Alexandra Park, where the host club has wanted them as they have struggled to attract elite fields in late May.

Alexandra Park will also host the new Golden Gait series consisting of ten $100,000 races on December 20, giving it a true December carnival.

The two slot races so successfully held at Cambridge in April this year are also confirmed, with the pacing race again at $1m but with the potential for a cheaper slot fee while the trotting race will also go ahead at $600,000 and its future looks assured.

New HRNZ chief executive Brad Steele was thrilled by the amount his organisation, with help largely from Entain but also from TAB NZ and NZ Sires’ Stakes Board, will be able to pay to stake holders for the next three years.

“Ten million dollars is a record figure for the sport,” says Steele, “and it shows we are heading into the future with a clear growth strategy and a lot of optimism.”

“We are one year into a five-year deal with Entain. We have jointly found a way forward that benefits everyone in our sport - including owners, trainers, drivers, breeders and punters.”

Harness racing will host 20 per cent more races next season with the two biggest moves punters will notice being the heavy emphasis on Friday night racing at Addington and Alexandra Park while Cambridge will predominantly race on a Tuesday, hosting 32 lower grade meetings on the midweek date.

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.