TABCORP chief executive David Attenborough has backed the Country Championships model implemented by Racing NSW, while at the same time supporting the state's governing body in their attempts to achieve tax parity from the re-elected Baird government.
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Attenborough was at Dubbo on?Wednesday to attend a Chamber of Commerce breakfast at Club Dubbo, and said the Country Championships had been a real boost for racing in the bush.
The series, which took in heats at Dubbo, Bathurst, Wagga, Goulburn, Tamworth, Muswellbrook, Port Macquarie and Grafton, culminates with the $300,000 final at Royal Randwick on Saturday, and with turnover figures up by more than 40 per cent across those meetings, Attenborough believes the concept can only be described as a success.
"Turnovers have been strong through the series, and interest and feedback is also strong as it helps build up to the major days coming up," Attenborough said.
"We saw a strong Golden Slipper recently and we've now got the big meeting this weekend that's the start of The Championships at Randwick.
"Country racing provides the racing all week that is the stalwart behind Sky Channel and the products our customers bet on seven days a week.
"The way that country racing is integrated with the community keeps racing relevant and it is vital to the industry.
"This Country Championships series is a very clever way of bringing country and metro together behind this global event and building to what will be a fantastic set of finals."
A topic that is sure to be debated heavily in coming weeks is Racing NSW's push for tax parity to fall in line with that provided in Victoria.
The NSW racing industry currently pays the highest state tax in the country. The tax is $3.22 in every $100 on tote bets and $1.56 in every $100 on fixed-odds wagers with the TAB.
Tax parity would drop those levels to the $1.28 and 63 taken by the Victoria government.
Both Mike Baird and Luke Foley raised the topic in their push towards last Saturday's election, with Labor guaranteeing parity while the Coalition baulked when asked to promise the same.
If parity is brought in, it could mean that more than $70 million a year is pumped back into the industry, with Racing NSW flagging that Saturday metropolitan purses would be lifted to a minimum $100,000, provincial purses to a minimum of $30,000 and country TAB meetings to a minimum of $20,000 per race.
"We fully support them (Racing NSW) in the fact that tax parity would mean getting more money back to invest in the infrastructure of racing," Attenborough said.
"It certainly seems right and fair there should be parity and hopefully we will see NSW get it shortly."
