NZTR National Fillies and Mares Series | Schedule - 16/01/12
As part of New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing’s strategy to reposition the industry, a new National Series of restricted class Fillies and Mares races have been programmed to commence from 1 March, 2012.
A total of 30 $12,000 midweek races for Fillies and Mares will be scheduled between March and the end of the current season. NZTR Chief Executive Greg Purcell said: “The NZTR Board is committed to developing opportunities for fillies and mares long term and NZTR will continue to work with the Clubs and the Regional Programming Committees to provide a schedule of 80 $12,000 midweek Fillies and Mares races nationally in the 2012-13 season.”
Across a full season it is envisaged that there will be a minimum of $1.2 million in advertised prizemoney attached to the 80 midweek and 10 Saturday Fillies and Mares races that will be held.
This new initiative, together with the 2kg sex allowance being provided for all fillies and mares racing in set weight or handicap races, has been introduced by NZTR to encourage more fillies and mares to compete. The NZTR Board believes that activating more fillies and mares to race is critical to the long term success of the industry.
Historically Fillies and Mares have made up between 54-57% of the available horse population after exports, but Fillies and Mares only represented 46.5% of the individual horses that raced in 2010-11.
NZTR’s objective is to ensure that Fillies and Mares are competitive. Across the next three seasons NZTR is looking for the percentage of Fillies and Mares racing to increase to 50% of the available horse population and for Fillies and Mares to represent 50% of the total number of individual winners.
The 80 midweek racing opportunities for Fillies and Mares will compliment the existing black-type races conducted currently, along with another 10 $25,000 Premier or Feature Fillies and Mares races that will be run on selected Saturdays throughout the year.
The first of these races will be a $25,000 Open Fillies and Mares 1400m Handicap run at Riverton on Saturday 7 April, with Premier Fillies and Mares R75 races being run at Te Aroha on 7 April and Wellington on 26 May.
The South Island Regional Programming Committee has programmed a $12,000 midweek R75 1600m Fillies and Mares event at the Amberley Racing Club meeting at Riccarton on 8 March, together with a $12,000 Rating 85 Benchmark Fillies and Mares race at Southland on Sunday 18 March to lead into the Riverton race.
While the new national Fillies and Mares races are being promoted as a Series, there is no restriction around entry to any of the $25,000 Saturday races programmed, which means that any eligible filly and mare is able to be nominated for these races at the time. There is also no early entry or qualifying conditions attached to any of the midweek Series races.
Regional Programming Committees will allocate the $12,000 midweek Filly and Mares across a mix of Maiden, age group, R65 and R75 races over a range of distances. In scheduling these races the Programming Committees will look to ensure that there are alternative opportunities available for male horses in the same period.
While the Regional Programming Committees will allocate a number of the midweek races to ensure that there are suitable lead-up races to upcoming Saturday $25,000 Fillies and Mares races, the midweek opportunities will also be programmed at other times of the year to give three year old fillies additional races and to provide an additional programming option before established black-type Fillies and Mares races at other times of the year.
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