IPOH:  April 22, 2011

While the Penang and Selangor Turf Clubs are reducing the prizemoney for their big races, citing reduced funding, the Perak Turf Club (PRTC) is doing the opposite.

The club has increased the prizemoney for the Sultan Gold Vase from RM300,000 to RM400,000. And from this year, the 1100m sprint over the straight course will be brought forward to July.

"Traditionally, the Gold Vase has always been held during the November race meeting together with the Charity Cup and the Coronation Cup.

"The rescheduling of the Gold Vase to July race meeting aims to provide a balanced spread of the club's feature races in our racing calendar," said PRTC deputy chairman Datuk Cheah Choon King.

The PRTC said it hopes that with the increase in prizemoney it will reinforce the stature and standing of the Gold Vase and at the same time attract more quality sprinters to compete in this event.

The Selangor Turf Club had cut the prizemoney for the Tunku Gold Cup and Selangor Gold Cup by half this season.

The Penang Turf Club reduced the prizemoney for the Yang Di Pertua Gold Cup from RM1.35mil in 2009 to RM750,000 last year.

It has announced that the prizemoney for the Sprint Trophy this year will be RM500,000, down from RM1mil last season, although they will fork out an additional RM600,000 if there are five or more starters from Singapore for the 1400m sprint.