RV shifts VOBIS funding to boost grassroots racing

Racing Victoria will maintain a $30 million VOBIS prize money pool but reallocate the financial incentives across a broader range of races in an attempt to increase the number of connections benefiting from the long-standing owner-breeder scheme.

In announcing changes to VOBIS, Victoria’s equivalent of Racing NSW’s BOBS, Queensland’s QTIS or Western Australia’s Westspeed, the state’s racing regulator will devote more of the bonuses to lower-level races and decrease the amounts that can be won at metropolitan level.

But RV stopped short of making wholesale changes to VOBIS by continuing with multiple eligibility criteria and maintaining the Silver, Gold and Platinum categories, meaning that horses by interstate sires can still be nominated for the incentive.

Among the key changes confirmed on Wednesday by RV, VOBIS Silver bonuses will be standardised at $20,000 across Saturday metropolitan, midweek metropolitan and country races.

Bonuses for country races will increase by $8000 and midweek metropolitan races by $5000, while Saturday metropolitan bonuses will be reduced by $10,000.

The VOBIS Silver nominator bonus available in all two and three-year-old black-type races will double to $20,000.

Bonus distributions across both VOBIS Silver and VOBIS Gold races will also be standardised, with 65 per cent allocated to owners, 23 per cent to nominators, eight per cent to trainers and four per cent to jockeys.

A new VOBIS Gold nominator bonus will be introduced, extending nominator payments to more than 250 VOBIS Gold races each season.

RV said “while the review confirmed the strength and importance of VOBIS to the Victorian thoroughbred racing industry, several adjustments were identified to improve consistency and clarity for participants across the program’s three tiers”.

Australian Trainers Association chief executive Stephen Bell had advocated for the changes that were implemented.

“A lot of what the ATA has been pushing for with prize money reviews and the VOBIS reviews is to get a greater share of the pool put into the lower end,” Bell said.

“So the smaller trainers (and lower-grade horses) are getting a bigger slice of the prize money pool.

“We’ve pushed for higher money on maidens and now with the VOBIS scheme, it’s more on the lower end as well.

“With the last two reviews — prize money and then VOBIS — that’s been our agenda and we’ve achieved that with both.”

TBV executive officer Carrie Hu also welcomed the changes.

“There was an extensive consultation process, and TBV has been actively involved representing the breeders’ voice,” Hu told The Straight.

“I think everyone, whether it’s breeders, owners, trainers or jockeys, we all agree that we would like to keep the bonus levels the same, but … that more money should be channelled to the grassroots level, just given the cost of racing horses.

“The cost of training is increasing so much and we would like to encourage more grassroots participation and keep more owners and breeders in the industry.

“With that kind of redistribution of the bonuses going to the country races, we thought it would be a pretty good result for everyone involved.”

But not all participants agree that VOBIS is structured in the most efficient manner, with one industry representative spoken to by The Straight on Wednesday questioning “what we want the scheme to be”.

“If VOBIS is supposed to be a scheme that promotes the Victorian-bred thoroughbred, then having eligibility that allows stallions based interstate to have VOBIS-qualified offspring is surely out of alignment,” they said.

The Victorian Jockeys Association and Thoroughbred Racehorse Owners Association were also consulted throughout the process, while public submissions and analysis of nomination, race field and foal crop data were considered during the review.

Nomination fees will increase for the first time since 2013. Racing Victoria said the rise follows a period in which the VOBIS prize pool has grown by more than 36 per cent.

A 20 per cent discount will also be trialled during the 2027 nomination period for participants who nominate 2025 foals to both VOBIS Silver and VOBIS Gold, providing savings of up to $1040 per horse.

No changes will be made to the VOBIS Platinum program, which offers an additional $7.5 million annually through $30,000 vouchers on nominated races for eligible progeny of VOBIS Sires stallions.

Racing Victoria first called for feedback from stakeholders about VOBIS in April last year, with submissions closing at the end of that month.

However, the regulator continued to receive submissions about maximising the owner and breeder incentive, the longest-running scheme of its type in the country.

To be eligible for VOBIS, a weanling or yearling nominated for the scheme must meet one of several criteria.