Kembla Grange trainers can chase lucrative new prizemoney at Saturday metropolitan meetings after the introduction of the Midway Handicap.
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Racing NSW have unveiled a plan for $100,000 races to be held every week for provincial and smaller city trainers, in the same way country stables already race in the Highway events.
It will mean 10-race cards will be held at the major metropolitan meetings.
The new schedule will begin on July 3, with a points scoring system applied to trainers, based on the number and level of winners trained by them in the previous year to see if they meet the mid-size category.
"The objective of the Midway races is to build the competitiveness of small to mid-sized stables and further develop the field sizes and quality for metropolitan racing," Racing NSW chairman Russell Balding said.
Other Saturday prizemoney will increase to a minimum of $130,000 and the Highway races get a boost from $70,000 to $100,000 to be in line with the new Midway events.
It's part of a $9 million prizemoney boost which will also see country racing minimums lifted to $24,000.
Features Group races have been bumped up, with the Epsom now $1.5 million and the Villiers Stakes in December jumping from $250,000 to $750,000.
There will also be a $200,000 lead-up race to the annual $1 million The Gong mile at Kembla Grange in November.
It comes as the NSW Provincial Championships series launches with the first heat at Newcastle on Saturday.
Gwenda Markwell's Gemmahra, Kerry Parker's four-year-old gelding Tampering, the Luke Price-trained Liveinthefastlane and Theresa Bateup's Magico Hombre are nominated, with the final field announced on Thursday.
"If he (Tampering) could turn up there and run first three, that'd be perfect for him," Parker told Sky Radio.
"That gives me plenty of time, he would have one more run before the final if he could qualify."
