The Eureka to be the world’s richest harness race

Harness Racing Australia will unveil on Wednesday its newest race, The Eureka, which will be a slot-style race similar in concept to thoroughbred racing’s hugely successful The Everest.

The Daily Telegraph understands The Eureka will be run for the first time next year and will boast prizemoney of around $2.1m, trumping the purse for iconic global harness like Sweden’s Elitlopp ($A1.67m), France’s Prix d’Amerique ($A1.56m), US’s Hambletonian ($A1.3m) and Canada’s North American Cup ($A1.3m).

The Eureka will be made up of 10 slots that will be sold for $100,000 per slot over a minimum of three years.

Importantly for prospective slot buyers, the majority of the prizemoney will be funded by Harness Racing Australia, thus ensuring the race’s long-term financial sustainability.

The Eureka concept will be launched in Sydney on Wednesday by Harness Racing Australia chairman Graeme Campbell OAM.

With the introduction of The Eureka, Sydney now hosts the richest events in world racing across the three codes.

The $15m The TAB Everest, run at Royal Randwick in October, is the world’s richest turf race and next month Wentworth Park has the TAB Million Dollar Chase, the richest greyhound race in the world.

The harness racing industry, similar to the gallops code, is enjoying boom times with a bullish yearling sale market and increasing race prizemoney, and The Eureka is designed to surf that wave and heighten growing public interest in the sport.

Harness Racing Australia has adopted an advertising strategy for the code called “Advance Australia” to encourage owners and participants to buy Australian-bred Standardbred yearlings and The Eureka will become a huge inducement and important part of this campaign.

The inaugural running of The Eureka will be at Club Menangle over 2300m on September 2, next year.

Club Menangle already hosts Australasia’s richest harness race, the $1m Miracle Mile, and is considered the ideal venue and market to launch The Eureka.

Beyond Club Menangle’s initial hosting of The Eureka, it is understood there will be a nationwide bidding process to stage the race.

The Eureka will be restricted to Australian-born three and four-year-old pacers.

Some of the exciting young talent that could be eligible for The Eureka next year includes Victorian star and last season’s Breeders Crown champion Catch A Wave along with recent stunning NSW Derby winner Leap To Fame.

By Ray Thomas for the Daily Telegraph