Queensland’s highly vaunted QBRED scheme will expand in 2022 with the first-win bonus swelling to $14,000.
With more than $3 million in bonuses up for grabs this year – along with a further $500,000 in feature race stakes – QBRED continues to be the nation’s premier breeding incentive scheme for harness racing.
Following stakeholder feedback, the nomination process has been streamlined, with upfront pay-ups now removed.
In order to participate, owners or breeders merely need to complete and return the nomination form to Racing Queensland without payment by December 1, 2021.
RQ will then forward an invoice for payment by February 28, 2022.
The payment structure will also be streamlined to the discounted ‘series fee’ – phasing out the ‘single year fee’ option – following widespread adoption of this option in recent years.
With the first-win bonus rising from $12,000 to $14,000, the $7,500 second-win bonus will be maintained.
The $100,000 Group 1 Triad Finals for two and three-year-olds will also continue, with heats re-introduced for each series.
Under the series conditions, the top-four on the QBRED Triad rankings will progress straight through to the Finals, with the remaining finalists to be made up of qualifiers from the heats.
The reintroduction of heats resulted from industry consultation which highlighted the existing ‘order or entry’ used to select TRIAD fields disadvantaged later maturing horses or those who had setbacks earlier in the season and therefore could not progress their ranking.
‘Transitional QBRED’, which allows Queensland breeders to bring in-foal mares to foal with the subsequent foal eligible for the scheme, will also continue.
“QBRED continues to go from strength-to-strength and these enhancements further our commitment to the scheme,” RQ Executive General Manager Operations Adam Wallish said.
“With more than $2.6 million in bonuses paid out last year, QBRED is set to rise again in 2022, providing a compelling case to support the Queensland harness racing industry.”
For further information on QBRED, please contact the Racing Queensland harness department.
Click here to review the 2022 QBRED brochure.