$1.25 million Nutrien sales and racing celebration bound for Victoria

“It’s a fantastic announcement” was Mark Barton’s first reaction after today’s revelation that a new $1.25 million Nutrien sales and racing celebration would be bound for Victoria.

The Nutrien Equine spokesman joined SENTrack’s TrotsLife today to share the “great opportunity”, a three-day event next April that’ll gift owners the chance to snap up and also see race some top tier talent.

“It’s something that the industry has talked about since (Nutrien) became part of it, that they’d love to see the sale be an event, not just a sale,” Barton told TrotsLife’s Toby McKinnon.

“We’ve been asked to link a race meeting with a sale and Melbourne’s the obvious one, it’s the last sale on the calendar.

“What we’ve managed to do is run this race a fortnight after Bathurst Gold Crown, so those young horses – two and three-year-olds – can race in Bathurst or trial in Sydney or Melbourne for this race. And then race in Melbourne on the weekend of the sale.”

The event will features sales activity on Friday April 12 and Sunday April 14 around the Saturday April 13 race night, which will feature two and three-year-old pacing and trotting Nutrien graduates.

“(It’s) an early race series with serious prizemoney, $1.25 million, which is 30 per cent more than … what we are racing for this year,” Barton said. “It means these young sale graduates will have a lot to chase over their first two years of racing.”

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The announcement was made by Harness Racing Victoria CEO Matt Isaacs, who told TrotsLife they wanted to “create a life-long ownership experience and I think that ultimately starts with the experience you have at the sales”.

“We’re incredibly excited to further extend our existing arrangement that we have in place with Nutrien, introduce a significant opportunity to race for prizemoney early in juvenile horses’ careers and ultimately build out a credible showcase event here in Victoria that will combine a sales program on a Friday, racing on Saturday at Melton and sales again Sunday,” Isaacs said.

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The announcement was well received by Harness Breeders Victoria president Nick Hooper, who said “I think everyone should be really pleased”.

“What we see up on the Gold Coast with Magic Millions, I think HRV and Nutrien are trying to create something similar here,” Hooper said. “Hopefully this is the first step towards a really wonderful weekend to owners, breeders and fans of the sport.”

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by Michael Howard, for Harness Racing Victoria