Record wagering on Hunter Cup/Great Southern Star meeting

Punters backed Saturday night’s Sportsbet A. G. Hunter Cup and Yabby Dam Farms Great Southern Star meeting like never before.

The 2025 A. G. Hunter Cup was the most wagered-on Victorian harness racing event on modern record, with turnover up more than 30 per cent on last year’s feature.

The meeting was also Victoria’s sixth largest for overall turnover, up more than 14 per cent year-on-year with active users increasing.

Naming rights sponsor Sportsbet saw record wagering numbers on the time-honoured feature won in track record time by Swayzee, revealing the Hunter Cup had its highest turnover on an Australian harness race.

It was also Sportsbet’s fourth highest turnover meeting of all time on harness, and it recorded its second highest number of active customers on a trots card.

“Sportsbet was thrilled to partner with Harness Racing Victoria on Saturday evening for what was a truly memorable evening of harness racing at Melton Entertainment Park for the Sportsbet A. G. Hunter Cup,” Sportsbet’s Chief Commercial Officer Nathan Arundell said.

“Importantly, Sportsbet customers agreed with Saturday evening’s meeting, achieving year-on-year turnover growth of 31 per cent, including year-on-year growth of 50 per cent in the Sportsbet A. G. Hunter Cup – the highest turnover harness race in Sportsbet’s history. And what a race it was!”

The support from Sportsbet follows its commitment as a naming rights partner for the Victoria Cup in October last year.

“We were incredibly well supported by Sportsbet and our other wagering service providers who did a remarkable job supporting us, connecting punters to the product throughout the week,” HRV CEO Matt Isaacs told Michael Felgate on RSN.

“I think the role RSN played and our other media partners was incredibly important, so that’s all delivered what is the highest ever turnover race in the history of harness racing in our records.

“We are really proud with what we’ve been able to achieve, but now we continue to work hard. We have to keep building on these types of events.

“Like all sporting codes, we’re all challenged for relevance in a strong entertainment set and entertainment dollar spend. So we have to continue to fight for our relevance, but this is a point in time and a marker that demonstrates that we still have relevance.”

Saturday’s meeting was the second time the A. G. Hunter Cup was held on the same night as the Great Southern Star when the latter is run in a heats-into-final Elitloppet-style format following its shift in 2024.

by Tim O’Connor, for HRV