Payment system to continue

PAYING all starters at harness racing meetings is set to continue, as it has had a positive effect on the industry.

Harness Racing New Zealand (HRNZ) adjusted its policy to pay nonplacegetters at a recent board meeting.

All starters in harness races worth less than $10,000 will continue to receive 2% of the prize pool.

Races over $10,000 are not bound to that rule; instead, nonplaced runners must receive at least $200.

Implementing a system to pay all starters prize money had been successful, HRNZ chief executive Edward Rennell said.

‘‘Our field sizes are slightly up on last year and they were up the year before.’’

Paying starters is believed to encourage owners and trainers to start their horses more often, which helps sustain the harness racing betting product.

That theory is on a parallel with HRNZ’s main objective for its system.

It simply wants to offset the costs of maintaining horses in training.

‘‘What we are trying do is to cover the cost, to a degree, and to ensure that every time they race they get a cheque,’’ Rennell said.

The system has had some resistance from the harness racing community but is becoming

more popular with time.

‘‘It is one where a lot of participants have not been overly happy with the 2% but the longer we have had it in place, people can understand it,’’ Rennell said.

Paying starters 2% of an $8000 harness race means a horse’s owners pocket $160 if their horse finishes out of a placing.

The system gives the harness code a major advantage over the thoroughbred code, where horses finishing further back than fifth generally do not receive any stake money.