Eagle has landed in Sydney
The gloves are off in the battle for spring racing riches between NSW and Victoria
Racing New South Wales has launched another assault on Melbourne’s grip of spring racing by announcing it intends staging million-dollar features across Cox Plate Day and the two Saturdays that book-end the Flemington Carnival.
In a gloves-off announcement yesterday morning, Racing NSW chairman Russell Balding announced Sydney racing will boast a feature race each Saturday over the heart of the spring, reports Racing.com.
The highlight of the announcement is a new A$7.5 million race for four-year-olds called the Golden Eagle, which will be run over 1500 metres at Rosehill Gardens on Victoria Derby Day on November 2 next year.
Balding also announced the A$1m Bondi Stakes for three-year-olds over 1600m at Randwick on Cox Plate Day on October 26, while the A$1m Golden Gift (1100m), which was first run by the ATC in 2015, will be run at Randwick on November 9 and clash with the final day at Flemington.
Balding said the Golden Eagle will be funded by new revenue streams, which will be announced at a later date.
At A$7.5m, the Golden Eagle will be the third-richest race on turf in the world (behind The Everest and France’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe), with 10 per cent of the prizemoney to be redirected to charities.
The Golden Eagle, Balding explained, was an easy concept for administrators to come up with as a race solely for four-year-olds. He said that as Rosehill already stages the Golden Slipper for two-year-olds and the Golden Rose for three-year-olds, the Golden Eagle was a simple fit for Sydney racing.
He also said a A$5m bonus will be paid to connections of any horse that can clinch the Golden Slam across the two, three and four-year-old races.
“The Golden Eagle will be entirely funded by new revenues to the NSW Racing Industry,” Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys said. “I am delighted this enables The Golden Eagle to be added as an important feature race at Rosehill and will also distribute $750,000 to charities.”