This year’s Victorian racing calendar has an exciting new addition with the most prestigious event in Australasian harness racing, the Inter Dominion (ID18), returning to Victoria after a decade-long hiatus.
Harness Racing Victoria (HRV) is today pleased to announce the official launch of the ID18 website – ID18.com.au
The new site is your one stop shop for everything ID18, including dining packages, raceday information, race history and programming, transport and accommodation.
All raceday events offer a great variety of options with something that is sure to cater for all tastes and budgets ranging from General Admission tickets (from just $10!) through to all-inclusive premium hospitality packages in a range of exclusive settings.
Australia and New Zealand have several trots headline events throughout all regions and across the calendar, but nothing matches the Inter Dominion for the interest of sports and racing fans.
Opening with the hard-fought Heats at Tabcorp Park Melton (Dec 1), Ballarat (Dec 4) and Cranbourne (Dec 8) and culminating in the Grand Final at Tabcorp Park on Saturday December 15, ID18 will showcase some of Australasia’s greatest equine athletes.
With four different champions in the past four years, the scene is set for the next champion to etch their name in harness history.
While racing is the central theme, ID18 is about more than horses and their trainers and drivers as the worlds of sport, entertainment, food and fashion collide in a unique spectacle.
The Grand Final will be a celebration for the young and the young at heart, with a wide selection of sought-after food trucks (think lobster rolls, Korean fried chicken and sweet crepes) – now such a vital part of Melbourne’s epicurean ecology – and the fun of roving entertainment, children’s activities and celebrity guests.
Check out the new site, grab your tickets and leave some petrol in the tank after this year’s spring carnival because the party continues – see you at ID18!
About The Inter Dominion
Advanced in 1935-36 to deliver harness racing’s premium Southern Hemisphere event, the Inter Dominion has met its mark and become the ultimate test of equine speed and strength. It returns to Melbourne for the first time since 2008, with this year the first of a new dawn that will share the championship’s joy throughout Australasia. Only 13 years after William Samuel Cox transformed farmland into the Moonee Valley racecourse, the Moonee Ponds track would host the Inter Colonial Free For All. A three-heat series on March 4 1896, the 100-pound championship lured New Zealand champion trotter Calista, New South Wales trotting freak Fritz, Australia’s finest pacer Mystery, illustrious trotter Osterley and leading new South Wales trotter St Louis. The incomparable Fritz won in straight heats and more than 10 seconds were slashed from the Australasian mile record. It was hailed as the greatest trotting exhibition the Southern Hemisphere had seen. The Inter Colonial Free For All was the first Inter Dominion-style championship. Some 30 years on, Western Australia administrator James Brennan revived the concept of a race series between Australian and New Zealand standardbreds. He visited all states with a proposal for a championship series, which would rotate between capital cities, and the first Australasian Trotting Championship would follow in Perth in 1925. The Great Depression intervened and the concept was set aside until 1935, when harness racing delegates from Australia and New Zealand met for the Australasian Trotting Conference. Their support spawned the Inter Dominion championships, beginning in Perth in 1936 and creating Australasian immortals for almost a century. On Saturday December 15 at Victoria’s Tabcorp Park Melton the next chapter will be written.
ID18 SERIES FEATURE EVENTS
- Welcome Cocktail Party – Thursday, November 29
- ID18 Heat 1 – Melton – Saturday, December 1
- ID18 Heat 2 – Ballarat – Tuesday, December 4
- ID18 Heat 3 – Cranbourne – Saturday, December 8
- Breakfast of Champions & Barrier Draw – Monday, December 10
- ID18 Grand Final – Melton – Saturday, December 15
