Originally Posted by
Race For Fun
There is no doubt races with $1500 are disgusting. They do nothing for the person with the horse. It costs exactly the same amount to feed a horse if it starts in a race worth $1500 or $5000 on the same program. The punter just wants to have a bet and he doesn't care what the prizemoney level of a race is, and that's not the punters problem either. But the fact that these so called "penalty free " races ever got approved doesn't say much for the powers that be. Clubs get to run a meeting at a fraction of normal costs. The powers that be then tell us how good TAB turn over is.
Trish have a look at the mile rate of the $1500 race at Newcastle you refered to, almost the fastest run of the night.
Maybe country prizemoney needs to be higher while the industry tries to rebuild and metropolitan racing might have to race for a bit less for a while. Don't get me wrong metropolitan racing should have good prizemoney but metropolitan racing gets it's strength from country horses.