The Melbourne spring carnival keeps getting bigger with Racing Victoria announcing an increase of $650,000 across seven Group One races this spring.
The prizemoney increased come on the back of the Mackinnon Stakes being repackaged with prizemoney doubled to $2 million earlier this month.
The prizemoney for the Memsie Stakes, Makybe Diva Stakes, Underwood Stakes, Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes, Caulfield STake and Toorak Handicap has been upped to $500,000 from $400,000, while the Moir Stakes is up to $450,000 from $500,000.
The increases for the spring features comes after an additional $2.1 million was added to the prizemoney for Group 1 races during the feature Relaxed Racing period (late summer/early autumn) earlier this year.
RV Chief Executive, Bernard Saundry, said the significant boost to prizemoney during the SRC would further reward the owners, trainers and jockeys who support Victoria’s premier racing period.
“Racing Victoria is pleased to announce an increase to our minimum funding for Group 1 races which has helped facilitate these prizemoney increases for the 2016 spring racing carnival,” Saundry said.
“These enhancements build on our program of investment in prizemoney over the past year and will see the total pool rise to just shy of $180 million, a collective increase of 14 per cent over two years.”
