Race on for prizemoney

GOLD Coast racing bosses will begin lobbying Racing Queensland immediately after the State Government ended an ugly stand-off by announcing it will inject $26 million into prizemoney.

And provincial prizemoney could increase as early as next week, sources said.

Turf Club CEO Steve Lines yesterday said the city’s Melbourne Cup day meeting would go ahead after the Government and Racing Queensland called a truce on a stoush over tax revenue. However, it is too late for live racing to be held at the Gold Coast, Doomben, Toowoomba and Townsville today due to the lack of time to nominate and prepare horses.

Thoroughbred racing was seething over a State Government snub to pour $70 million from a 15 per cent tax into infrastructure for harness and greyhound racing, a loan write-off, and tax payments for Ubet.

Yesterday’s deal with racing powerbrokers came after tense negotiations in the past week.

The Queensland Government will inject $18 million into prizemoney on November 1 and a further $8 million in six months as part of a deal that will deliver a fixed $26 million sum to the industry each year.

The new tax on bookies is expected to bring in $100 million next year and each year after.

Mr Lines originally hoped for at least half of the estimated $70 million to be garnered from a new tax that started on October 1 to be put into prizemoney, but said the deal was a start.

“Something is better than nothing,” he said.

Mr Lines said GCTC officials had already contacted Racing Queensland CEO Brendan Parnell to begin negotiating what portion of the funds would go to provincial tracks.

“Provincials are due for an increase. They are the ones who have been left behind,” he said. “The metropolitan tracks have been going up and getting theirs but over the last few years it’s the provincials that have been affected most.”

Mr Lines said part of the $26 million should be used to provide Gold Coast added incentives over rival provincial tracks due to its proximity to NSW as its fight to stop local trainers heading south of the border.

“We’re at the coalface here and we suffer more than any other track in Queensland. We want a bit more of a kicker.”

Mr Parnell said the returns would provide a significant boost to cashflow for participant viability.

“The Government’s announcement is positive news for the future of racing and will go a long way toward returning confidence to the Queensland industry,” he said.

“I look forward to working with the Racing Queensland team and board over the coming days to determine how the thoroughbred funding will be allocated.”

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