The crowd gathers to watch the action at Bendigo Harness Racing Club.
The Bendigo Harness Racing Club is set to reap several key benefits from Harness Racing Victoria’s Summer of Glory re-structuring, announced last week.
The re-structuring of the carnival became necessary because of the New South Wales Harness Racing Club’s decision to move its Summer Carnival into February, thereby creating a clash between its Miracle Mile qualification races and Victoria’s Hunter Cup.
In order to obtain the best result for all Victorian harness clubs and industry participants, a number of clubs have agreed to move their cup fixtures to new dates.
“To compensate for this, clubs will be offered a range of stake increases for their respective feature races, as well as a number of other associated benefits,” Harness Racing Victoria CEO John Anderson said.
“These changes will hopefully see many of the top horses make Victoria’s Summer of Glory Carnival their key focus."
Under the new plan, the Group 2 2016 PetStock Bendigo Pacing Cup will now be run on Saturday, February 13, with prizemoney increased from $50,000 to $60,000.
To further complement the cup program, the 2016 Aldebaran Park Maori Mile will be elevated to Group 1 status with prizemoney increasing from $30,000 to $50,000.
This will enable the Group 1 Albebaran Park Maori Mile to serve as a perfect lead-up race for Australasia’s best trotters – and possibly some international entries – to the $400,000 Great Southern Star on March 12.
HRV will also look at programming some metro class races on the cup program.
“All this should ensure Bendigo has one of the best quality cup programs it has had in many years”, Anderson said.
Some further funding assistance will also be provided to the Bendigo club to assist in promoting the new cup date, and is part of a three-year deal negotiated between HRV and the club.
Bendigo president Paul Best is upbeat about the carnival changes.
“Whilst moving the Bendigo Cup out of the lucrative January holiday period is not ideal, the opportunity to move the Aldebaran Park Maori Mile to Group 1 status and attract the best trotters in the land to Bendigo, as well as some metro class horses, is a huge bonus”, he said.
“Whilst we may lose some top horses, trainers and drivers to the New South Wales Summer Carnival, we should still be able to attract a very even and high quality Cup Field from the horses who raced through the Victoria and Hunter Cups.
“The funding assistance from HRV will also enable the club to effectively market the new cup date and structure to the public, so hopefully the club will be able to attract an even bigger crowd than last year.
“The Bendigo club is also pleased to have been able to co-operate and work with HRV to obtain the best overall outcome for the Industry, its participants and the club."
