MORE than R250 million will be paid in prize money in Phumelela regions for the racing season 2013-14 (1 August 2013 to 31 July 2014) with R134 million or some 54% of that total allocated to races on the Highveld.

This is 5.9% more for the Highveld than in 2012-13, while total prize money in the Eastern Cape has risen 8% to R37.2 million and 14.4% in the Northern Cape to R16.2 million. The Kimberley figure is slightly skewed because two meetings were lost in the previous season.

Phumelela manages racing and betting in the Western Cape on behalf of Kenilworth Racing and prize money there will increase 17% in total to just over R63.6 million for the season.

The higher percentage increase in the Western Cape flows from the agreement between the Thoroughbred Racing Trust and Kenilworth Racing in terms of which races in the region are allocated 26% of the total stakes pot generated by the prize-money agreement between Phumelela and the Racing Association.

The increase in the Western Cape needs to be viewed against a background of prize money there having declined every season since 2010. Hence next year’s rise will bring the region more into line with stakes nationally.

The new prize money levels for 2014 allow for minor races to be split on the Highveld, Western Cape and Eastern Cape when there are sufficient final acceptors.

Stakes for all minor races in Phumelela regions will increase from 1 January. On average minor races on the Highveld will go up 6%, while the average increase for minor races in the Eastern and Northern Cape is 6.8% and 10.25% for the Western Cape.

From next year all graded and listed races in Phumelela regions will carry at least the new minimum prize money levels set by the Graded Races Committee recently. These minimums had not been increased for many years.

In terms of these new minimums the stakes of four Grade 1 races in the Western Cape have been upped to R1 million – the Avontuur Estate Cape Fillies Guineas, the Betting World Cape Flying Championship, the Investec Cape Derby and the Klawevlei Majorca Stakes.

The Wilgerbosdrift SA Oaks run on Champions Day at Turffontein has been upgraded to Grade 1 status from next year and consequently the stake of the race goes to R1 million. In order to keep the balance between races for both sexes and those restricted to females, the prize money of the matching both-sexes event to the Oaks, the SA Derby, has been upped to R2 million.

All Non-Black Type feature races in the Eastern and Northern Cape that carried stakes of less than R100,000 will increase to R100,000 from 1 January.

Minimum stakes levels for graded and listed races in Phumelela regions from 2014 are below with the previous minimums in brackets.