NSW Country racing received a massive boost on Tuesday when it was announced by deputy premier and racing minister Troy Grant that the minimum prizemoney would increase to $20,000 per TAB race.
In addition to this increase, there will also be 40 “showcase” meetings where each race will carry $30,000 in stakes.
The changes will be implemented on July 1 next year, and is a huge boost for local trainers, namely Brett Thompson and Cameron Crockett.
Crockett in particular was pleased Mr Grant, alongside Racing NSW chairman John Messara and CEO Peter V’Landys, had finally decided to help trainers and owners from the bush.
“It’s a great initiative, it’s brilliant mate,” he said. “People always say ‘country racing is the backbone of racing’ and up until recently there has been a lot of talk - now they’re on the front foot and they’re giving us a real go.”
It won’t only be the trainers and owners that benefit however, with Crockett explaining that there will be money thrown at certain areas that desperately need it.
“It wasn’t only the prize money that increased, there was a lot of other things they mentioned,” he said. “One was that there is a lot of money going out to the country tracks to upgrade facilities.
“If we can upgrade our (training) facilities too then we can promote ourselves a bit and we can compete with the Sydney trainers in more ways than one – not just on race day.
“At the moment it’s very hard to get horses – if I go to the sales and pick out a horse I like, I come home quite often disheartened because we have to put a cap on it.
“Once you get up to 20, 30, 40 thousand it’s too much for a horse in the bush because it’s hard to see a return when you’re only bringing back eight-grand for a win.
“Now you’re looking at as much as $17,000 for a win.”
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In total the changes will add up to $21 million to country and provisional sectors, totalling $69 million per annum – a huge boost for the industry as a whole.
This is coupled with plans for a new traineeship and apprenticeship scheme for youth in regional NSW which will receive a further $1 million per annum.
However, Crockett believes there are still certain policies that need consideration, despite being extremely appreciative of the changes and the benefits they will bring to country racing.
“The only query I have with the whole thing is that you see a lot of city trainers coming out and competing and taking a lot of money away from the bush,” he said.
“The only concern is that they might be willing to travel further for that extra money per race.
“What they need to do is restrict a lot more races to country horses only, that way you know that the money is staying in the pockets of country trainers.
“A lot of the things they are doing are brilliant though so you can’t knock what they’re doing – it’s brilliant.”
Gulgong trainer Brett Thompson also weighed in on the changes.
“We need a lot of money for infrastructure in the bush and not just the city,” he said.
“That way we can spend money on safety and better facilities for our horses and sand tracks and grass tracks – it’s great.
“Troy Grant noticed that we needed to put money into infrastructure to help us out in the country.
“I’m really happy that they’ve given us more money, but there are other ways it can be distributed as well.
“We need more racing – a lot of times we have horses that go two or three weeks balloted out then they get a run – that’s a sign that we haven’t got enough racing.
“There might not have been enough input from country people to help them understand what’s wrong out here and what needs to be fixed.”
Minister for Dubbo, Troy Grant, said on Tuesday that the changes will hugely benefit the industry and hopefully, bring racing in NSW up to a point where it could compete with Victoria.
