Miracle Mile prizemoney boost makes it the southern hemisphere’s richest

[Nergal]

 

The Miracle Mile, Sydney’s signature pacing event, will carry record prizemoney of $1 million next March, making it the richest harness race in the southern hemisphere.

Club Menangle chairman Ray Sharman confirmed the $250,000 boost in stakes was fully funded and sustainable.

Sydney now boasts the world’s richest turf race with the $14 million The Everest, the world’s richest greyhound race with the Million Dollar Chase, and the southern hemisphere’s richest harness race with the $1 million Miracle Mile.

Sharman said the significant lift in prizemoney for the Miracle Mile (up from $750,000), which is run at Tabcorp Park Menangle on March 2, will “ensure that connections of all our Grand Circuit horses will endeavour to secure their place in this great race, further raising the profile of harness racing both in NSW and nationally.’’

Trainers of horses such as the defending Miracle Mile champion My Field Marshal (Tim Butt) and recent Inter Dominion Grand Final winner Tiger Tara (Kevin Pizzuto), which are both trained in NSW, will be enticed to concentrate on the Miracle Mile next March — now double in value of any other Grand Circuit race in Australia.

My Field Marshal, who resumed at Menangle on Wednesday with an easy win, paced the fastest mile ever seen in Australasia when winning last year’s Miracle Mile clocking 1:46.9s.