Horsham will hold a special place in this year's Victorian spring racing carnival.
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The Horsham Racecourse will host a leg of the Melbourne Cup Carnival Country Series for the first time.
Horsham and District Racing Club committee member Simon Gebert said he was looking forward to one of the richest races in the club's history.
"When we found out the news, it was something special because we haven't hosted a $100,000 race before. It was really good news," he said.
The third annual Melbourne Cup Carnival Country Series will be run exclusively for country trainers without a metropolitan base nationwide.
An additional $700,000 is on offer in this year's series, with the prize money doubled for each heat.
"I hope the prize money is a drawcard. We do get great support from trainers far and wide, but it would be great to see those high-quality horses for a race like this, and they (trainers) might also bring some other horses along for our other races," Gebert said.
The heat is scheduled for October 20 to coincide with the running of the $60,000 Horsham Cup.
"We'd been working for a fair while on promoting our Cup and having different ideas to get people through the gates. So, this is just an added bonus," Gebert said.
Gebert said selection as a host club came as a welcome surprise.
"There are eight clubs and they (Racing Victoria) have just earmarked us as one. As far as we knew there wasn't a process we had to go through," he said.
In a boost to racing in the region, Murtoa has also been selected to open the $1.3 million country series on October 5.
It is the third year in a row Murtoa will host a heat. Last year's race was rescheduled and moved to Stawell after issues with the track forced the meeting to be abandoned.
The series will run through October with the first two placed horses from each heat qualifying for the Flemington final, to be run on Oaks Day, and a shot at $500,000 in prize money.
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