The QTOA recently tabled a letter to Racing Queensland CEO Brendan Parnell around the distribution of prizemoney and increased costs to owners.
With the introduction of the new Point of Consumption tax and rising costs to owners, the QTOA wanted to propose some targets for where we feel prizemoney needs to be across the board throughout all levels of racing in Queensland.
The proposed prizemoney targets were largely based around feedback we took from members during our recent QTOA Owners survey.
Please see below the letter which was sent to Racing Queensland and discussed further in our recent meeting with RQ officials.
Dear Brendan,
As you are aware, with recent increases in prizemoney in New South Wales and Victoria, it is getting increasingly difficult to talk to owners in Queensland about running their horses in this state. In fact, there are many large owners looking at just how they can get a return on investment by continuing to race in Queensland. We are hoping a Prizemoney announcement will stem the bleeding, particularly around the cost of owning a racehorse in this state.
The new Point of Consumption Tax (POC) and larger distribution to Racing Queensland is a welcome relief to all participants, particularly our members in the Queensland Thoroughbred Owners Association Inc (QTOA).
There is no doubt that a lot of work that has been done behind the scenes with the Queensland Government to secure this type of funding for the sport and QTOA are excited about the possibilities around the distribution back to owners.
Recently, QTOA completed a survey of its members and has had many conversations with owners over the last few months. What is clear from our members and owners is that the cost of owning a racehorse, particularly in country/regional areas is becoming more and more difficult. Further to that, the cost of travel for country & regional trainers is at an all-time high and those costs are inadvertently passed onto owners.
We attach a spreadsheet which details just how much more expense it is to train, own and race horses in regional and country Queensland. We encourage Racing Queensland to consider this when they are looking at the distribution of funds available and may even need to consider an alternative funding model for trainers that have to travel across the state. We know in Regional Queensland that there is increased costs in looking after the welfare of all horses, due to the higher temperatures that trainers have to prepare their horses in.
While we know there has been some consultation and discussion on the distribution of POC around Prizemoney and Infrastructure, QTOA would like to see Prizemoney reach the below targets as soon as possible to help with the increasing costs of owning a share in a racehorse. Increases in Prizemoney flow through to all participants and we feel that these targets will help all participants.
CATEGORY | LOCATION | TARGET PER RACE |
Group Races & Black Type | Qld | To be discussed further |
Metro – Saturday | SEQ | $100,000 |
Metro - Midweek | SEQ | $45,000 |
Provincial 1 | Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Ipswich | $32,500 |
Provincial 2 | Toowoomba | $27,500 |
Central & North QLD | Central & North QLD | $27,500 |
Provincial 3 | Kilcoy, Beaudesert, Warwick | $22,500 |
Country Cups | Regional QLD | $200,000 + two support races $50K |
Country TAB | Country Racing (eg Longreach) | $17,000 |
Non-TAB | Regional | $10,000 |
In relation to the Queensland Thoroughbred Incentive Scheme (QTIS), we encourage Racing Queensland to not only make every 2yr old and 3 yr old race in Queensland eligible to Queensland bred horses, but to increase that to 4-year-olds, particularly in Regional Queensland.
We look forward to working with you to achieve these outcomes so that we may stay competitive with other racing jurisdictions around Australia and for owners to continue to invest in Queensland.
We also look forward to having the opportunity to discuss Group and Black Type prizemoney and innovation, in the not-too-distant future.
Yours in racing
Peter Tighe, Chairman
DATE SET FOR AGM
We are pleased to inform QTOA Members that our Annual General Meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 11, 2023 at the Gold Coast Turf Club.
A further notice will be distributed to members once full details have been finalised.
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