VOBIS revamp as $30 million scheme simplified
Victoria’s three-decade-old breeder-owner bonus program divided into categories with opportunity to upgrade
Australia’s oldest and richest breeder and owner bonus program, the lucrative Victorian Owners and Breeders Incentive Scheme (VOBIS), has undergone a significant rebrand, its biggest overhaul in three decades.
The scheme, worth more than $30 million in the season, will allow any VOBIS-eligible horse (now called Silver) to be upgraded to the Gold and Platinum categories, the latter restricted to the progeny of paid-up Victorian VOBIS-eligible stallions, which includes, but is not limited to; Written Tycoon (Iglesia), Shamus Award (Snitzel), Magnus (Flying Spur), Rich Enuff (Written Tycoon) and Fierce Impact (Deep Impact), who are all standing in the southern state in 2023.
There is $13 million up for grabs in bonuses for Silver-category horses, $21.75 million for paid-up Gold horses and a total of more than $30 million for Platinum-eligible thoroughbreds.
Buyers of a VOBIS yearling, for instance, can pay $1,100 to upgrade their VOBIS Silver horse to either the Gold or Platinum categories spending on their sire in a not too dissimilar fashion to how a horse is paid up for the Magic Millions, Inglis or New Zealand Bloodstock race series schemes.
Racing Victoria yesterday outlined the rebranding of the important VOBIS scheme, a key driver of racehorse ownership for Victorian trainers and the state’s breeding industry.
“The VOBIS program is the richest owners’ and breeders’ incentive scheme in the nation offering more than $30 million in prize-money, bonuses and vouchers this season,” RV executive general manager of racing Matt Welsh said.
“VOBIS has been a valuable part of Victoria’s racing and breeding industries for nearly 30 years, and it will enter the 2023-24 racing and breeding seasons with a new and simplified look.
“There’s now a much clearer pathway from VOBIS Silver onto VOBIS Gold and VOBIS Platinum with greater rewards available for those who race the progeny of a VOBIS sire and thus support the Victorian breeding industry.
“The revamped VOBIS program will continue to incentivise new and existing investment in the Victorian breeding industry, and reward those who breed, buy, own and race in Victoria.”
Victoria’s stud farms and breeders, in part, fund elements of the VOBIS initiative, including the $1 million The Showdown (1200m) for two-year-olds and the $500,000 VOBIS Sires Guineas (1600m) for three-year-olds in April each year, through levies on service fees.
Thoroughbred Breeders Victoria president James O’Brien welcomed the simplification of VOBIS.
“The beauty is you can go to a sales ring, you can see it’s VOBIS Silver and straight away you know you can upgrade it to Gold or Platinum level for a cost of $1,100 and you are racing for many more riches,” O’Brien told ANZ Bloodstock News last night.
“If I am racing horses in Victoria, why would I rob myself of the opportunity to compete for an extra $30 million by not buying a VOBIS horse?”
The rebranding comes a year after $7.5 million was invested in VOBIS via $30,000 VOBIS Sires Boost vouchers which can be won across 250 races each season.
The $30,000 vouchers, the result of a joint venture between RV, TBV and the Victorian government, are distributed on a percentage basis depending on the person’s shareholding and it can be used to reinvest in the progeny of a VOBIS Sires stallion or to help cover the service fee of an eligible Victorian stallion.