Trotting Cup stake raised to $100,000

Press, 22 July 1980, Page 22

Trotting Cup stake raised to $100,000

The stake for the New Zealand Trotting Cup this year has been raised by $15,000 to $lOO,OOO. In announcing this yesterday, Mr M. L. Taylor, the president of the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club, said that the New Zealand Cup was still the country’s most prestigious race and it was intended to keep it that way.

The winner’s share of this year’s cup stake will be $60,000. The runner-up will earn $21,000, third place is worth $lO,OOO, fourth $6OOO and there will be $3OOO for the fifth placegetter.

This latest move brings the prize-money for the New Zealand Cup up to the same value as that offered for the Auckland Trotting Cup, which has carried a $lOO,OOO stake for two years now.

But unlike Auckland there will not be a prize for every runner. This year the Auckland Trotting Cup was worth $52,000 to the winner, $14,000 for second, $BOOO for third, $5OOO for fourth, $3OOO for fifth and $2OOO apiece for each of the other starters.

The only race for the topclass pacers previously run in New Zealand which has

been worth more was the Pacers’ Grand Final at the Inter-Dominion Championships run at Addington in March of last year. The total prize-money for that event was $125,000. In addition to announcing the boost to the New Zealand Cup stake, Mr Taylor said that the committee would be meeting soon to review stakes, with the exception of the National meeting for which the programme has already been published, for all races to be run by the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club next season.