Inside Racing: Are the Big, Little and Barn Dances for the benefit of country racing?

That's the question worth pondering after Australia premier sprint race, The Everest, got a bump to a staggering $20 million prize pool in a recent announcement from Racing NSW.

The announcement also included the creation of the new $5 million King Charles III Stakes, a Group 1 mile race set to be a major counterpart to the Cox Plate.

However, there have been recent benefits for country events, with a pair of country boosted races available at every meeting and the Kosciusko and Country Championships giving the best regional horses a chance to race for seven figure prizemoney.

The Big Dance has also been bumped up to $3 million for its second running this November.

The event sees country cup events, such as those in Dubbo, Bathurst and Orange, used as qualifiers for the multi-million dollar finale at Royal Randwick.

Additionally, the announcement from Racing NSW included an increase for the Little Dance from $500,000 to $750,000 and there's also been the addition of the $250,000 Barn Dance race.

The Barn Dance comes with the important caveat that it's only open to country-trained horses.

The race is a benchmark 100 event, meaning it will bring the best of the best from NSW and ACT country courses.

The issue that Bathurst trainer Dean Mirfin continues to have with the Big Dance isn't the money, it's that the race has made the country qualifying events a popular target for horses from outside the region.

"It's become difficult for country horses to even get runs in Country Cup qualifiers for the Big Dance, let alone win those races," he said.

"The Big Dance and Little Dance races will ultimately be loaded with horses coming from Sydney, and we're giving away a multi million purse in races ... to horses that really didn't look to be at the level where they should be racing for that sort of money.

"When the country cups races are getting tough to win for country horses that's when you've got to consider whether Racing NSW completely thought out those races when they initiated those programs."

It's not all bad news in the eyes of Mirfin, who has been pleased with a lot of other steps that the governing body has taken in recent times.

"I can see both sides of it," he said of the announcement.

"I think Racing NSW has been fantastic for country racing in many aspects. The prizemoney increases we've had have been very beneficial, and I'm pleasing we way races like Highway Handicaps and races that are just for country horses.

"The Barn Dance looks like it'll be akin to a Country Championships Final or a Kosciusko, and that's a race being set up for country horses specifically so I'm not going to complain about that. In general, I still think Racing NSW have done a great job with prizemoney across the board.

"But a $20 million race is honestly no more valuable to anyone than a $15 or $10 million race. It's incredible prizemoney. It does seem to be a bit top heavy."

It's the spending of money away from the track that's drawn Mirfin's ire of late.

What hurts most for the Bathurst trainer is knowing that there's money set aside for stable upgrades for his home track but progress on that development hasn't been made.

"Nothing has happened. We're sitting back waiting for the money to be spent on the development of this track, and they're talking about this money going to Sydney races while we've got money here that we're not using," Mirfin said.

"Now there's talk of spending some of that money on upgrading the race track itself, which will put a dampener on racing out here for a while, and the trainers out here are in the dark and have no idea what exactly is going to happen with that money.

"At this stage we've got three barns on course. One of them has had the guts ripped out of it, and that was going to be developed first, and that's just stopped. The interior of that stable is just sitting there dilapidated."

Region has trio of Highway hopes

THERE will be a Western flavour to the TAB Highway Handicap at Rosehill on Saturday.

A trio of trainers will contest the $120,000 race on Saturday with Brett Thompson, Gayna Williams and Alison Smith to make the trip to Rosehill.

Thompson's Blow Dart will have in-form jockey on board while the Gulgong trainer is a chance of having Smart Roostar race as well.

The newest star in Thompson's stable, Smart Roostar has been accepted as an emergency but has drawn barrier nine and could be competitive should he get a start.

Brief Statement was impressive last start at Coonamble, finishing third and now Smith will take her down the highway to Sydney for her second race in the city this winter.

Meanwhile, Williams' Tags will make his first start since 2022, drawing barrier 11 for his return to the track.

Saturday's race will jump at 1:20pm.

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