KEY POINTS:
Next week's Budget will include $1 million to improve racecourses.
And Racing Minister Winston Peters announced yesterday that there would be an extension of the accelerated bloodstock write-down rules.
"The poor state of facilities at many racecourses is of great concern and is one of the most pressing issues currently facing the industry." Mr Peters said the new fund would support dollar for dollar successful applicants planning racecourse projects that enhanced safety and raised the quality of racecourse facilities.
"This will bolster racing's economic performance by reducing the number and seriousness of racing-related accidents and by helping to cut the number of meetings that are disrupted or abandoned due to unsafe tracks."
He said the write-down rates for bloodstock would be widened to include overseas-owned horses.The move is directed at sires that shuttle between the two hemispheres for breeding.
"This will encourage racehorse breeders to purchase successful shuttle stallions which in turn will strengthen the quality of New Zealand-owned and controlled bloodstock."
Mr Peters and his Victorian counterpart, Rob Hulls, also yesterday announced that combining of betting pools for New Zealand and Australian racing was only weeks away.
The two ministers signed an agreement of co-operation in Wellington yesterday.
The combining of betting pools will be a boon for punters on both sides of the Tasman.
Essentially it will mean a bigger pool into which punters will bet, meaning betting fluctuations will not be as wild as they are now.
For example, it is not unusual for a horse or dog to be paying $10 to win several minutes before the start of a race but end up paying only $2, which is mainly because of a small betting pool.
The combining of betting pools - known as co-mingling - will also even out the odds of parochial bets.
For example, a New Zealand horse running in an Australian race is usually paying a lot less on the New Zealand TAB than it is with Australian TABs.
The initial co-mingling will be with TABcorp in Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania and Australian Capital Territory.
Ideally the TABs of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Northern Territory would join to make one super pool.
- NZPA
