$20.3 million hike for Kiwi racing
Welcome New Zealand prize-money boost on eve of NZB National Sale
An additional NZ$20.3 million in prize-money will be distributed to New Zealand’s thoroughbred participants next season as the first injection of cash is accounted for courtesy of the recently inked 25-year Entain-TAB NZ deal.
Prize-money increases for the financially strained New Zealand industry will be seen across almost all races run next season with Group 1s worth $400,000 (up from $300,000) while the lowest grade of races, currently run for $14,000, will jump to a minimum of $17,000.
Eight innovation races will be introduced including a $1 million Karaka Million race for four-year-olds and a $350,000 race run at Ellerslie which is only eligible for trainers who are not inside the top ten.
Feature maidens will increase from $15,000 to $20,000 while New Zealand’s spring-summer-autumn Wednesday twilight meetings will be worth $25,000 each race, up from $14,000.
The initiatives will take the total thoroughbred prize pool next season to $90.8 million.
New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing chief executive Bruce Sharrock welcomed the news.
“We are pleased to see stakes funding spread across all categories and regions of racing,” Sharrock said.
“NZTR has also introduced eight new innovation races, as well as further funding to the very successful Southern Mile.
“We have also outlined key strategic priorities to be addressed over the next 12 to 36 months that will continue to improve all facets of our industry, which is paramount to improving wagering growth.
“NZTR has also provided commentary on the recent TAB NZ Entain strategic partnering arrangement, with an explanation of what it means to our industry, as well as answering a number of frequently asked questions surrounding the agreement.
“Our entire industry can all be very excited for what the future holds off the back of this announcement. We see this as our opportunity to lay the platform of improved professionalism and standards across the industry, leaving a legacy for generations to come.”
The prize-money announcement, made at New Zealand Bloodstock’s Karaka complex yesterday by Sharrock, came on the eve of the 2023 National Sale, starting at 10am local time today.
NZB bloodstock sales manager Kane Jones welcomed the much-needed boost to the local industry’s prize-money pool.
“It was really well received and I think they’ve made a really conscious effort to put prize-money in the right places and to introduce some really exciting and much-needed initiatives into play,” Jones said of yesterday’s long-awaited announcement.
“It was very, very positive and I think it was well-received in the [Karaka auditorium] room.”
On more immediate matters, Jones’s focus was on today’s weanling and broodmare sale.
“We have had really good interest from the locals but we have also had a good number of Australians here for the past few days as well,” Jones told ANZ Bloodstock News last night.
“There is a definitely an appetite for those quality pinhook horses and [buyers] will be active on the right horses but there’s also really good opportunity for people to put them aside and trade them [as two- and three-year-olds] or even just have a nice racehorse at the end of the day.
“There’s opportunities at each stage of their career.”
The revitalisation of New Zealand’s stallion ranks is well under way, headlined with champion sire-in-waiting Proisir (Choisir) and Rich Hill’s rostermate Satono Aladdin (Deep Impact), and the National Weanling Sale provides the first glimpse of the next wave coming through.
Cambridge Stud shuttler Hello Youmzain (Kodiac) (five lots), Windsor Park’s Circus Maximus (Galileo) (four) and Novara Park’s King Of Comedy (Kingman) (three) are all represented with first crop foals at the National Sale.
Kiwi agent Bevan Smith is one who has paid close attention to the weanlings by first season sires.
“I have been quite taken with the first crops of Hello Youmzain and Circus Maximus,” Smith said.
“The Hello Youmzains all move well, much like himself as he is a good mover, and Circus Maximus has stamped them.
“The ones I have seen all have size and strength.”
Woburn Farm’s Adrian Stanley suggested the Karaka sale provided opportunities for a range of traders.
“There’s a little bit of flavour here. If I buy any, we have a spectrum of the industry to shoot for. Some will be here in January, some could be for the Ready to Run and beyond that, the trials,” Stanley said.
“I have also been taken by a couple by Circus Maximuses. I have a couple at home and was curious to see if others were as good. They’re strong, athletic, good walkers and with good temperaments.”
Cambridge Stud chief executive Henry Plumptre has so far been happy with the first crop of weanlings he’s seen by Hello Youmzain, both those bred by Brendan and Jo Lindsay, and those residing on other farms.
“He’s got a beautiful line of weanlings, they’re all very Danehill-line type. They’re very similar, they’ve got good tops, they’ve got good scope,” Plumptre said.
“Like any stallion, he’s got a few small ones, a few leggy ones, but by and large they’ve got a look about them.
“We’ve got probably early 20s in number of weanlings and we’re going to try and strategically place three or four at Magic Millions and look at the sales in Australia, just to put them in front of the buying bench.
“If we had a December sale [like they do in Europe] for the foal market in the southern hemisphere, you’d see a lot more of the Hello Youmzains being offered as weanlings and we don’t have that outlet here.
“There are a couple of nice horses by him here [at the weanling sale].”
Fourth crop weanlings by Cambridge Stud’s Almanzor (Wootton Bassett), the sire of Victoria Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) winner Manzoice and Derby placegetters Virtuous Circle and Andalus, and third crop foals by rostermate Embellish (Savabeel) will also go under the hammer today.
“With a bit more luck, Almanzor probably would have been a three-time Group 1-winning first season sire. He had one Group 1 winner and he had a couple of other Group 1 seconds,” Plumptre said.
“Luck is a huge part of it, but he’s had half a dozen other black–type performers, two or three of them winners and I don’t think he could have done much more, so I think they’ll be pretty popular.”
As for Embellish, the sire of three first crop winners including Luberon, in addition to the stakes-placed maidens Paragon and Talisker, Plumptre said: “He’s coming off a very low base. When you’re coming off a $4,000 service fee, you are slightly in the lap of the gods, you can’t control the outcome as well as you might with a stallion like Almanzor, but withstanding that, he’s had four or five horses perform in stakes races.
“We’ve got Luberon, who is stakes-placed in her first prep, and Te Akau have got a really nice horse [Talisker] out of a mare we’ve got in Grand Wish and he looks like he could be a very nice horse next season.
“There’s a bit to like about them and you couldn’t second guess that sire line. Savabeel’s been a phenomenon, Zabeel was an incredible stallion, as was Sir Tristram, so you’d be a fool if you said one of them [Savabeel sire sons] wasn’t going to work.”
From a buying bench point of view, Australian agent Merrick Staunton, who has barely missed a sale all year, was in Auckland ahead of today’s sale.
“It looks like I will have at least half a dozen vetted, mainly colts, and a couple fillies,” Staunton said.
Fellow well-travelled agent Dave Mee was also on the ground yesterday, adding: “I have seen some nice types which will suit my clients. Buying weanlings on type allows us a little more control of their destiny. It allows us more options.
“You can take them through to a Ready to Run, or trials, or early racing. When they get to two and three, with trial form, they can be quite attractive buys.”
NZTR prize-money increases
Proposed change From To Details
Group 1s $300,000 $400,000 Iconic races
Group 2s $140,000 $175,000 Iconic and Premiers
Group 2s $120,000 $150,000 Feature and Industry
Group 3s $100,000 $120,000 Iconic and Premiers
Group 3s $85,000 $100,000 Feature and Industry
Listed $80,000 $90,000 Listed Races at Iconic and Premiers
Listed $65,000 $80,000 Listed Races at Feature and Industry
Iconic Opens $70,000 $75,000 Open races at Iconic meetings
Iconic other races $60,000 $65,000 R75 & below at Iconic meetings
Premier races $50,000 $65,000 Allnon-G&L, excluding Maidens
Premier Maidens $30,000 $30,000 Premier Maidens
Feature Opens $40,000 $50,000 26 August to 6 April
Feature other $30,000 $40,000 26 August to 6 April R75 to 2&3YO
Feature Maidens $15,000 $25,000 26 August to 6 April
Feature Opens $35,000 $40,000 1 to 25 August & 7 April to 31 July
Feature other races $30,000 $35,000 1 to 25 August & 7 April to 31 July
Feature Maidens $15,000 $20,000 1 to 25 August & 7 April to 31 July
Industry Opens $15,000 $25,000 26 August to 6 April
Industry other races $14,000 $18,500 26 August to 6 April
Industry Opens $15,000 $22,000 1 to 25 August & 7 April to 31 July
Industry other races $14,000 $17,000 1 to 25 August & 7 April to 31 July
Industry Wed twilights $14,000 $25,000 November to March (19 meetings)
Innovation races
Proposed race Stake
Karaka Million 4YO $1,000,000
South Island race $350,000
Wellington 1W SC race $350,000
Ellerslie not top ten trainers $350,000
Te Rapa MAAT race $350,000
Southern Mile $200,000
Three All-Weather Champs $100,000 each