Queensland Prize Money Increases Announced

Saturday prize money in Brisbane will rise by 37 per cent with each race to be worth a minimum of $65,000.

Racing Queensland announced across-the-board prize money increases on Monday with metropolitan gallops and greyhound racing the biggest winners.

Overall thoroughbred prize money will rise by up to 20 per cent with the biggest lift on the Saturday metropolitan meetings.

Greyhounds will receive a 50 per cent boost while harness racing goes up by 16.5 per cent.

The increases will begin from October 1 and run through to 2016.

At an industry briefing on Monday, RQ chairman Kevin Dixon said the system of the three codes receiving a set percentage of available funds had been scrapped.

He said the prize money would now be based on each code's individual revenue less the costs incurred.

"The idea is to enable the codes which are performing to benefit from their achievements," Dixon said.

"If a code shoots the lights out they deserve to benefit from their hard work."

Dixon said it was important to maximise growth by recognising the hard work of each code.

"We want to break the mentality of hand-outs to be replaced by a policy which encouraged all codes to maximise their returns," he said.

The changes follow a new $4.5 billion 30-year Product Agreement, RQ signed with the Tatts Group in late June.

The minimum prize money for Saturday metropolitan racing will be further boosted for horses eligible for the QTIS bonus scheme.

There will also be major increases to provincial and country racing.

Midweek metropolitan prizemoney will now be $20,000 up from $17,000 per race.

Gold Coast, Ipswich and Sunshine Coast meetings will average $16,000 each which is up about 25 per cent .

Toowoomba's prize money will go from an average $11,000 to $14,000.

All country races will now be worth $7000.

Racing Minister Steve Dickson said when his government came to power racing had been in disarray and far from united.

"Today we are united and it is going from the dark to the light," he said.

Monday's announcement follows news of a stronger QTIS scheme which encourages investors to buy Queensland-bred horses and which will inject further millions into the industry.