HAWKESBURY TO KICK OFF 2026 PMC SERIES
- John Curtis
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
RacingNSW has announced the dates for the six qualifying races, along with the Wild Card at Newcastle on Thursday, April 2.
“Each of the qualifiers again will carry $150,000 prizemoney, and the Final at Royal Randwick on April 11 on the second day of The Championships is worth $1m,” RacingNSW general manager Industry and Analytical Scott Kennedy said this morning.
“It is always a keenly contested series, and no doubt eligible NSW Provincial and Midway trainers are already planning programs for their likely contenders.”
Stretched across the five provincial clubs – Hawkesbury, Newcastle, Kembla Grange, Wyong and Gosford – there will be three Qualifiers for provincial-trained horses only, and three for both provincial-Midway horses.
The first two placegetters in each of the six Qualifiers go into the Final, and will be joined by all three placegetters in the Wild Card (both provincial and Midway) for horses which contested any of the six heats without qualifying.
The qualifying races will be set weights Class 5 Plates at distances from 1200m-1400m for horses which have not had more than 20 starts.
This will be the 12th running of the annual series, which began in 2015 for NSW provincial trainers only before eligible Midway trainers were included in 2022.
Hawkesbury Race Club chief executive James Heddo has welcomed RacingNSW’s decision to again kick off the series at his track.
“This will be our first meeting back after our last meeting for this year on December 14, and the course will be in superb condition following an annual track renovation,” Heddo said.
“The first Qualifier will be for both provincial and Midway horses, and our second Qualifier on Saturday March 7 is for provincial trained horses only, and coincides with our increasingly popular Groove On The Grass raceday.”
Newcastle’s Kris Lees, with five wins, is easily the most successful trainer to date, whilst James McDonald and Jason Collett have each ridden two winners.
. The dates for the 2026 series is as follows:
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19 – HAWKESBURY (1400m, Provincial/Midway)
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28 – NEWCASTLE (1400m, Provincial only)
SATURDAY, MARCH 7 – HAWKESBURY (1400m, Provincial only)
SATURDAY, MARCH 14 – GOSFORD (1200m, Provincial/Midway)
SATURDAY, MARCH 21 – KEMBLA GRANGE (1400m, Provincial only)
SATURDAY, MARCH 28 – WYONG (1350m, Provincial/Midway)
THURSDAY, APRIL 2 – WILD CARD @ NEWCASTLE (1400m, Provincial/Midway)
SATURDAY, APRIL 11 – ROYAL RANDWICK ($1m FINAL, 1400m)
. The Provincial-Midway Championships honour roll is:
2015 – SURE AND FAST (Bede Murray/Jason Collett)
2016 – DANISH TWIST (Kris Lees, Damien Oliver)
2017 – MARYORE (Philip Courtney/Tim Clark)
2018 – SERENE MISS (Kris Lees/Jason Collett)
2019 – BOBBING (Bernie Kelly/Koby Jennings)
2020 – THROUGH THE CRACKS (Angela Davies/James McDonald)
2021 – CRISTAL BREEZE (Kris Lees/Hugh Bowman)
2022 – KINLOCH (Kris Lees/Nash Rawiller)
2023 – SPANGLER (Kris Lees/James McDonald)
2024 – TERRITORY EXPRESS (Paul Niceforo/Zac Lloyd)
2025 – MACHA LATTE (Sara Ryan/Ash Morgan)