TAREE-Wingham Race Club will look to increase prizemoney for the Hopkins-Livermore Cup at next year’s cup carnival.
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However, the event will remain the principal race on the Friday program. The race was introduced this year as a way of honouring two of the giants of Mid North Coast racing, Ivan Livermore and Don Hopkins and it carried $40,000 in prizemoney.
“We’ll look at tweaking some of the prizemoney for the Hopkins-Livermore Cup next year,’’ Taree-Wingham chairman Greg Coleman said.
“But it will be staying on the Friday.’’
Mr Coleman revealed betting turnover was up $160,000 this year on the 2015 figure for the Friday meeting. He attributes this to the staging of the cup.
“We had the biggest Friday crowd in five years,’’ Mr Coleman added.
Mr Coleman confirmed next year’s Taree Gold Cup will again carry $80,000.
The cup day meeting was attended by Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys and Australian Racing executive officer Peter McGauran. Former NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell and his wife Rosemary were other special guests with Mrs O’Farrell returning home for the day. She is the daughter of former State and federal member, Bruce Cowan. Mr Coleman has already spoken to Mr V’landys about potential improvements to facilities at the Bushland Drive complex and he said he received a favourable response.
Mr Coleman admits he was disappointed with the response to the Taree Cup Calcutta dinner held at the Winning Post Function Centre.
“We had 130 there and that’s something we’re going to look at for next year,’’ he said.
The club will consider approaching another sporting body with a view of increasing the attendance.
“We might be able to work in with the Manning Hockey Association – we could invite a current Australian player as our special guest and work in hockey,’’ Mr Coleman said.
He said the club receives strong support from the Men of League Foundation, with former South Sydney rugby league great George Piggins special guest this year, along with Manning-born Olympian John Fahey.