TAB Eureka smashes crowd and turnover records

A RECORD crowd and significant wagering growth has underlined the vital importance of the $2.1mil TAB Eureka in Australian harness racing.

Last Saturday night’s third running of the world’s richest race saw the largest Menangle crowd since the official opening of the new home of Sydney harness racing in 2008.

While final wagering figures are still being collated, the early results show an increase of almost 15 per cent YoY per race across the eight-race card, compared to nine races held last year.

Andrew Kelly CEO HRA congratulates winning slot holder Rob Watson from Soho Standardbreds - Photo Getty Images

“That sort of growth is really pleasing and significantly bucks the national trend,” Harness Racing Australia CEO Andrew Kelly said.

Menangle reported an official crowd of 9220, a remarkable increase of 47 per cent from 2024.

“At a time when getting people trackside is a real challenge, we’ve now had a total of 24,038 attend the three TAB Eureka meetings so far. That’s an average of 8013,” Kelly said.

“The 9220 this year was also an increase of 10 per cent on year one, which we always hoped to grow on but knew would be hard to do given the novelty of the first running.

“What struck me, and so many others, was the engagement of the crowd as much as the size.

“They filled the lawns alongside the track, watched the races, cheered and created a fantastic atmosphere.

“So many of the participants, especially the younger ones, were really taken by it. For the oldies it was a step back to the ‘glory days’ as they call them and the younger ones would never have seen a crowd like that.”

Kelly said it was important to emphasise that much of the growth had been organic.

“We committed to a healthy marketing budget for the first two years to make as big an impact as we could with the TAB Eureka and wound that back by 30 per cent this year, but still saw such exciting growth in wagering, attendance, and engagement off track in the build-up and night itself.

“It really shows the TAB Eureka has made its mark. Very quickly, it has established itself as one of the hugely important events for harness racing in this part of the world.

"One metric we had was to engage with the thoroughbred audience as well, so it couldn't have been better than to have John, Wayne and Michael Hawkes, along with Tommy Berry, Zac Lloyd and Tyler Schiller, all trackside on the night."

Leviathan owners Rob Watson and Kevin Seymour, who both had slots in the TAB Eureka and were trackside, said TAB Eureka now rivalled the Inter Dominion as the sport’s most important and exciting event.

“I loved this concept from the moment I heard about it,” Watson said. “I jumped at the chance to have a slot, didn’t have much luck the first two years, and then managed to partner with Bay Of Biscay and win it last Saturday.

“For all the success I’ve had in this game, that’s the biggest thrill.

“We really need everyone in the industry to get right around the TAB Eureka now. We’ve seen what the Everest has done for thoroughbred racing and, in our way, the Eureka is doing it for harness racing.”

Seymour said the night took him back in time.

“We haven’t seen a crowd or atmosphere like that for a long, long time,” he said. “We’ve created something special and exciting and now the responsibility is there to build even further on it.”

Champion trainer Emma Stewart, who won her second TAB Eureka in three years with Bay Of Biscay, said last Saturday night's win was the highlight of her stellar career, which already boasts 140 Group 1 wins.

"I didn't think we could top Encipher winning the first Eureka, but the story around Bay Of Biscay and what he means to us has done it," she said.

* Adam Hamilton is a paid contributor writing on harness racing for News Corp.