Stakes are higher: Hawke’s Bay’s Livamol Classic sees 19% stakemoney hike

Jockey Michael McNabb and Mustang Valley after winning the $330,000 Livamol Classic in Hastings last October. Stakemoney throughout the country is due to increase 19 per cent in the new season. Photo / Ian Cooper

Stakemoney for the Hawke’s Bay horse race that was for several years the richest in New Zealand is expected to be boosted this year, but not anywhere near the $2 million heights it reached 15 to 16 years ago.

The increase for the Livamol Classic in October, on the last day of three of the Hawke’s Bay Spring Racing Carnival, will come about as a result of a nationwide 19 per cent increase in stakes announced on Thursday, following the TAB alliance with global sports betting and entertainment group Entain, which includes horse racing and sports betting giant Ladbrokes.

Stakes across all 294 race meetings throughout New Zealand will increase a total of 19 per cent (by $20.3 million to $90.8 million) from the start of the 2023-2024 racing season on August 1, but Hawke’s Bay Racing chief executive Aaron Hamilton says the club is still to look at how the increase will be applied.

There are 14 race days scheduled for Hawke’s Bay and an early focus will be on the three-day carnival on the Saturdays of September 9 and 30 and October 14, the last day featuring the Livamol Classic, which was last year raced for stakes of $330,000, including the winning purse of $189,750.

Originally the Ormond Memorial first run over 10 furlongs (2000 metres) in the autumn of 1955, it became New Zealand’s richest as it switched to spring and had rapid increases in value in the first decade of the new millennium.

With the race increased marginally to 2040 metres in 1996 as a match (and pathway for), the Cox Plate in Australia, the stakes increased from $250,000 in 2000 to $500,000 two years later, then $1 million in 2004, and $2 million in 2007 and 2008, attracting some Australian interest.

While the eye-watering figures weren’t able to be sustained, the race continues to attract some of the best weight-for-age gallopers in New Zealand.

Entain managing director New Zealand Cameron Rodger is thrilled the 25-year commitment made by Entain has led to the boosting of the fortunes of owners, trainers, breeders, jockeys, stablehands, farriers, feed providers and “so many other Kiwis that are directly or indirectly involved in this proud industry.”