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Western Sydney will have its own version of The Everest from 2023, with Harness Racing Australia to announce on Wednesday the creation of the Eureka, a $2.13 million slots race to be based at Menangle.
The Eureka will be the richest event in the world of harness racing, usurping Sweden’s famous Elitopp, which is run for $1.67m, but will be restricted to Australian-bred three-year-old and four-year-old pacers.
There will be 10 slots offered in the race, with slot-holders asked to make a three-year commitment of $100,000 a year – the same model employed by The Everest in its first three years.
“We can’t wait to release all the details,” HRA chairman Graeme Campbell said on Tuesday. “There is a real sense of optimism around Australian harness racing now and what better way to give that further momentum than by launching the richest race in the world.”
The Eureka, to be run over 2300m on September 2, 2023, will be funded by $1m from the sale of slots, which are expected to be over-subscribed, and matched dollar-for-dollar by HRA.
There will be bonuses of more than $130,000 for the fastest last mile and last quarter of the race and a bonus to each breeder, who produces one of the 10 runners. The winner will walk away with $1m.
The roomy Menangle track will give the best emerging horses in the country the chance to run record times and it has been given the honour of running the first edition to establish the brand before the venue will be put out to tender.
“As soon as we heard about the race, we wanted to host it,” Club Menangle chairman Robert Marshall said. “We hold Australia’s richest race, the Miracle Mile, and now we have The Eureka to look forward as well.”
Campbell hopes The Eureka will introduce the younger generation to the sport. It was restricted to three- and four-year-olds to allow punters to follow the horses through their careers into traditional races like the Inter Dominion and Miracle Mile.
“The Eureka is unashamedly designed to grow the Australia harness racing industry. It is part of our ‘Advance Australia’ strategy to encourage owners and participants to buy Australian-born yearlings,” Campbell said.
“It will drive opportunities for local sires, generate external investment in the industry and identify new income streams.”
HRA is also considering a $1m trotters slots race to compliment the Eureka, which has met with a positive response from harness racing’s biggest players.
“If what we’re hearing is right, and we can have the world’s richest race in our backyard it will be absolutely amazing,” Miracle Mile winning reinsman Luke McCarthy said.
McCarthy and his wife Belinda’s Cobbity Farms operation is a training centre and also stands stallions, which means it could benefit on many levels from The Eureka.
Two of the early leading Eureka contenders would be star three-year-olds Catch A Wave, winner of the Breeders Crown two-year-old final last October, and Queenslander Leap To Fame, who brilliantly won the recent NSW Derby at Menangle.
Catch A Wave’s driver Kate Gath is expected to be just one of many high-profile trainers and/or drivers at Wednesday’s Eureka launch on Sydney Harbour.
By Chris Roots for The Sydney Morning Herald
