Newcastle will be home to the world's richest greyhound staying race next year with the winner of the new event collecting $500,000.
Greyhound Racing NSW (GRNSW) are introducing "The 715" to their calendar in June 2022 and the state body's chief executive officer Tony Mestrov describes The Gardens as the "perfect fit".
The lucrative race will be run over 715 metres.
"This is another tremendous announcement for the industry in NSW and its participants and something we have been working on for some time following the success of the Million Dollar Chase," Mestrov said.
"We all know that around 75 per cent of our participants are regionally based, and that was a key factor in our decision to stage this race at The Gardens, and not at the city track, Wentworth Park. With the Hunter Valley being a heartland for greyhound racing, we felt the region and its people were the perfect fit for an event of this stature.
"The Million Dollar Chase has become the premier event for sprinters not only in NSW, but across the country, and we see this race complementing that event as a showcase race on our calendar, this time catering for the stayers."
The 715 joins the Melbourne Cup (515m) as the third richest event in Australian greyhound racing, behind only the TAB Million Dollar Chase (520m) and next week's $750,000 to the winner TAB Phoenix in Melbourne.
Newcastle's top prizemoney had been the group 2 Black Top (515m), with victory worth $40,000.
One of the Hunter's premier greyhound trainers Jason Mackay may have just the competitor for the new staying event with Cool Bourbski lining up in the listed Newcastle Cup at The Gardens this Friday night having recently broke the track record over 715m.
Richmond Vale-based Mackay had Cool Bourbski stop the clock at 41.40 seconds last week to eclipse the previous mark, set in 2018, by 0.14s.
