The lucrative Premier Race Series returns later this month when the 2021-22 edition kicks off with the VOBIS Gold Star on Manikato Stakes Night (Friday, 22 October) at The Valley.
The 1500m contest, which is worth $205,000 in prizemoney and bonuses, is the first of 18 races in the series, which this season offers a record $5.025 million and is open to all VOBIS Gold-nominated horses.
Last year’s VOBIS Gold Star was won by the Danny O’Brien trained Iconoclasm, who broke through the $1 million mark after collecting more than $100,000 courtesy of his narrow defeat of Grahame Begg’s Galaxy Raider.
Across Iconoclasm’s career, the Rosemont Stud-bred seven-year-old has earned more than $160,000 in VOBIS bonuses alone, re-emphasising why it pays to own, train and breed horses in Victoria.
As part of the prizemoney announcements made earlier this year by Racing Victoria (RV), a number of VOBIS races received a significant increase, with the Premier Race Series boosted by more than $300,000 on last year’s combined total of $4.7 million.
Ten of the 18 races which make up the series have been included in the prizemoney push, giving owners, trainers and breeders even more incentive to nominate their horses to VOBIS Gold.
The training team at Lindsay Park were the major beneficiaries of the scheme in the 2020-21 season, with their runners claiming more than $1 million in VOBIS prizemoney and bonuses.
That headline figure was due largely to Finance Tycoon’s emphatic victory in the 2021 edition of The Showdown, the $1 million feature contest on Victorian Owners and Breeders Raceday.
The other big winner at Caulfield that day was Ripper Rita, who took out the $500,000 VOBIS Sires Guineas (1600m) for her trainer Greg Eurell.
Both contests are exclusively open to the progeny of VOBIS Sires which have been nominated to the VOBIS Gold program, with VOBIS Sires nominators eligible to receive a bonus if their horse finishes in the placings in either race.
If you have any questions about Super VOBIS nominations or the VOBIS program, please email vobis@racingvictoria.net.au or call 1800 870 799.
ENDS