The Dubbo Greyhound Club will be given the honour of hosting the inaugural running of the world’s richest middle-distance race in March next year, Greyhound Racing NSW has announced.
The new event, which will be known as The Country Classic and will rotate each year around regional venues, will culminate with a $125,000 to the winner final at Dubbo’s Dawson Park on March 19, 2022.
A series of heats will be held at eight venues across the State, with the first four in each heat advancing to four semi-finals, before the first two in each semi-final progresses to the final.
One ‘Best 8 – Non Grade’ heat with $5,000 to the winner, will be held at Bathurst (February 28), Nowra (February 28), Gosford (March 1), Dapto (March 3), Richmond (March 4), Dubbo (March 4), Grafton (March 5), and The Gardens (March 5).
The semi-finals, which will carry prizemoney of $7,000 to the winner, will be held at Dubbo on March 12.
The final has prizemoney of $125,000 to the winner, $30,000 to the runner-up and $15,000 for third, with each unplaced finalist receiving $2,000.
Total prizemoney for the series is $282,000.
“I have no doubt this will be yet another tremendous series which will attract the very best middle-distance greyhounds, not only from NSW, but I would expect with the amount of money on offer, we will see several interstate dogs crossing the border for the event,” GRNSW Chief Operating Officer Wayne Billett said.
The new event is the latest announcement as part of GRNSW’s record returns of $47 million to participants in 2021-22.
