That means any horse, pacer of trotter, based in the region could effectively never have to race for less than $12,000 in its whole career if it raced only at ATC meetings, which is entirely feasible.
ATC president Kerry Hoggard said it was important that increases were for normal races, which any stable can hope to compete in, rather than the premier nights which tend to be dominated by the major stables.
"We want the extra money we are putting into stakes to be there for the connections of all horses who want to compete at ATC meetings," said Hoggard.
"We would rather see that money spread around than boost stakes for the major races, which are won by the elite horses anyway."
Hoggard says he would have liked to have gone higher, even though the stakes will now regularly beat anything else harness horses can race for in New Zealand and rival most weekend gallops meetings.
"We would all love stakes to be even higher but we had to make sure first and foremost that these were sustainable, which they are," he explained.
"But we will revisit them next year when we have more certainty about the commercial development prospects at the Park when further increases are possible."
Even without further increase the new stake levels mean an average Auckland Trotting Club meeting will rival premier harness meetings and can only help horse numbers in the region, either through encouraging local owners to retain horses, rather then selling them overseas, and luring other horses from around the country to Alexandra Park.
It has long been one of the great mysteries of harness racing in this country that so many owners are willing to race in capacity South Island fields for lesser stakes than send their horses north to race in smaller fields for more money.
But the new stake levels may be too hard to ignore any longer and even a boost of 50 or 100 more horses to the region would greatly benefit ATC turnovers, which are affected by, among other factors, field size.
Meanwhile, the fastest-ever mile in New Zealand will bring together Australasia's two harness racing super powers in a A$50,000 race in Sydney this Saturday.
Harness Jewels winner and 1:50.5 miler Border Control tackles the Hondo Grattan at Menangle this week to try and qualify for the A$200,000 Chariots Of Fire on March 2.
With New Zealand's all-conquering trainers Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen staying home to race some of their elite team at Addington on Saturday, they will use superstar Sydney driver Luke McCarthy to drive Border Control.
