Acceptance fees that come from owners' pockets to boost the stakes of New Zealand's most prestigious races are here to stay.
The New Zealand Harness Racing Trainers and Drivers Association proposed a rule change at last week's national harness racing conference to alter the industry's approach to acceptance and starting fees by restricting payments to group 1 races only.
The association reasoned acceptance fees were artificially inflating stakes at the expense of horse owners, while also being an inefficient collection of GST.
However, the change was shot down by the clubs when they voted on the issue.
In the coming weeks, the owners of New Zealand Trotting Cup hopefuls will need to fork out a starting fee of $11,500, having already made three sustaining payments of $460, $920 and $1840 to keep their horses eligible for the race.
Those owners will receive more than the cost of those payments back - $15,690 - if their horse starts in the cup.
Addington racing manager Brian Rabbitt admits collecting $220,800 in starting fees for the cup's 15 starters is done predominantly to boost the race's stake to $800,000.
But there is also a strong argument for the benefits to the race's betting markets from the charging of acceptance fees.
``They give integrity as far as anyone that is having a bet,'' Rabbitt said.
``That gives the betting public a good insight into who is intending to start.''
Although aware the issue has created recent debate, Rabbit said the charging of starting fees was nothing new to harness racing.
`` It is not that many years ago you paid acceptance fees on a maiden race.''
The fees are also commonplace in the thoroughbred code, especially for Australia's most prestigious races such as the Melbourne Cup.
The New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club has been the most active user of the system in New Zealand harness racing in recent seasons. It has also added acceptance fees to races such as the Dominion Handicap, the New Zealand Derby and the New Zealand Oaks.
Canterbury trainer Mark Jones admits he is a fan of a system of early nominations, which give punters information on which horses are targeting those key events, but takes issue with the amount the Addington club is charging owners.
``I have nothing against early nominations ... it creates good interest,'' he said.
However, the nature of racing, where any number of things could go wrong in the weeks leading into a race, meant asking owners to pay sizeable acceptance fees for Addington's key races was not fair, Jones said.
``When you are charging every six weeks to be in the race and then advertising the race as $800,000 it is wrong.
``You could race the cup for $500,000 and you are going to get the same field - it is a prestigious race and everyone wants to win it.
``The owners are getting shafted and the trainers shouldn't have to be asking the owners for the money.''
