In what is set to be a massive win for Sydney racing, the newly minted group 1 races are likely to sit in the top 100 group 1 races in the world, which means in 2025 those meetings will be included in the Hong Kong Jockey Club-powered World Pool.
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The World Pool enables bettors from all over the globe to bet into a single multimillion-dollar pool, which will return substantial fees to the cash-strapped ATC as the club hosting the meeting.
Racing NSW has been preparing for the announcement in the past couple of months and dropped the bonus for the Sydney Sprint Series from $3 million to $2 million in the knowledge the majority of races in the series would carry the prestigious group 1 tag.
It is the ultimate recognition for the expanded spring carnival that started with the creation of The Everest, which has gone from $10 million to $20 million in prizemoney in the past seven years, and continued with the $10 million Golden Eagle, which has become a focus of thoroughbred trainers around the world.
Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys has continually claimed he was not concerned by The Everest’s lack of group 1 status, but achieving the classification not only for the $20m slot race but also the four other races in the carnival he has created might be his biggest victory.
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