Record stakes for Cup meeting

Press, 22 July 1986, Page 40

Record stakes for Cup meeting

The Canterbury Jockey Club will pay out $657,000 in stakes for the New Zealand Cup carnival at Riccarton in November. The increase in stake money is nearly 25 per cent on the corresponding meeting last year. This represents an increase on nearly every race and is a record for the club.

The total prizemoney makes the three day meeting easily the richest spring galloping carnival in New Zealand.

The biggest stake on offer will be the Lion Brown New Zealand Cup for $155,000, an increase of $55,000 on last year. The Feltex New Zealand Two Thousand

Guineas increases by $20,000 to $140,000, The Queen’s Park Canterbury Gold Cup by $15,000 to $40,000 and the Movements International Stewards by $lO,OOO to $35,000.

Other notable increases are the Benson and Hedges Gold Cup $4OOO to $35,000, the Churchill Stakes $5OOO to $20,000, and the Blenheim Road Motor Hotel Otaio Plate (Class 2) $4OOO to $lO,OOO.

Stakes for other meetings in the spring and early summer also show substantial increases. The Lion Brown Ney? Zealand Cup trial on October 18 will be worth $20,000 as well as assuring the winner a start in

the New Zealand Cup, provided all entry conditions are met. Also on October 18 will be the $lO,OOO C.J.C. Classics Trial and the $13,000 Classique Cottages Canterbury Breeders’ Stakes, for fillies and mares. Both events are run over 1400 metres. A new event on October 4 will be the Canterbury Belle Stakes for three-year-old fillies, for a stake of $B5OO over 1200 metres. The race is the first event in the South Island three-year-old fillies’ series and a valuable lead-up for the $lOO,OOO Wrightson New Zealand 1000 Guineas, run on the first day of the cup carnival.