ONE of the premier sprint races in the Central Districts has just gotten even bigger.
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The Bathurst Thoroughbred Racing Club has revealed that this year's edition of The Panorama has doubled in prize money from its inaugural running. Come September 27, the 1,300 metres feature will carry an $80,000 purse.
The idea behind The Panorama was to provide country horses preparing for The Kosciusko an ideal lead up race. That, along with the prize money increase, has BTR general manager Michelle Tarpenning excited about what lies ahead.
"The prize money for that, leading into The Kosciusko which is 20 days later, is very exciting for all the trainers and owners in this region - it is really something for them to aim at," she said.
"We are really excited about it, last year's race was an outstanding success, so we are really lucky to be able to have that race again with increased prize money.
"It is the premier race really in this area and hopefully over the years it will grow and grow ... for only it's second year to have this prize money, very excited. In these tough times to be able to offer people this extra prize money is just fantastic.
"It's fully supported by Racing NSW, it's so generous of them, and shows they see the value in the race."
The Panorama forms part of a bumper race meeting, with the Bathurst Cup, Hugh Bowman Cup, Rising Prince and Gold Circle Cups as well as The Barb Handicap also set for September 27. Tarpenning hopes it will draw both quality fields and a capacity crowd.
"That's the way we built it, last year was the first year we held it in September ... we changed it to align with the Spring Racing Carnival, it's a perfect fit. We really want to build this day and make it big for Bathurst as well, we can have up to 500 patrons," she said.
Before the September meeting, Tarpenning is hoping the club's planned seven-race program for Monday is not cancelled due to the wet weather.
If it is deemed too wet on Sunday, it will be the second meeting in succession to be washed-out.
"I'm looking at the weather twice a day. We are having the stewards come up on Sunday and they are going to reassess as we've got showers predicted all weekend," Tarpenning said.
"We are really fingers crossed that we are good, it's just that home turn that we are always keeping our eye on. We got 80 acceptors at this stage and the track is a Heavy 10, so we are monitoring it very closely.
"I was reminded of a year when we had three [wash-outs] in a row in July and August. Your club is reliant on these races, you only get 12 bites at the cherry and if you lose one it's pretty profound."
