The highly prestigious annual Australian Horse of the Year and Hall of Fame awards will now become genuinely national events with Racing Victoria (RV) successful in their proposal for the Australian Racing Board (ARB) to take over administration of the events.

Starting from this year, Racing Victoria will begin to shift duties for the selection and award ceremonies for both events to the ARB.

Over a three year transitional period, the ARB will seek guidance from RV in the pre-ceremony planning and hosting.

“The Board’s Directors today approved the proposal that the ARB assume control of the Australian Racing Hall of Fame and Australian Racehorse of the Year Awards over a three-year transition period commencing this year,” ARB Chief Executive Andrew Harding confirmed on Thursday.

To ensure that both the Horse of the Year and the Hall Of Fame events receive equal recognition with the racing industry and public, each award ceremony will be held as separate, stand alone proceedings.

“This will allow the industry to showcase these two wonderful events across the nation and profile each racing state, its participants and racing fans with the opportunity to embrace both events which hold great significance in the Australian Racing Industry,” Harding continued.

“Upon recommendation from Racing Victoria, the ARB has agreed that the optimal arrangement is to conduct the Australian Racing Hall of Fame induction ceremony and Australian Racehorse of the Year Awards dinner separately in the future to allow inductees and recipients their appropriate time in the spotlight.”

The 2011 Australian Racehorse of the Year Awards, for which Peter Moody’s superlative sprinter Black Caviar is the keen favourite to obtain the honours, will be conducted on Sunday night, September 18, 2011 and be conducted by Racing Victoria at Crown in Melbourne.

Bernard Saundry, Chief Operating Officer for RV, said the Australian racing industry as a whole would benefit from the changes.

“Our objective with both the Australian Racing Hall of Fame and Australian Racehorse of the Year Awards has been to build them into successful national events and to be truly national, they need to be administered by the ARB and showcased in different states,” Saundry said.

The ARB will govern the selection process for the Australian Racing Hall of Fame induction ceremony, which is due to be held in Sydney during March of 2012.

Changes and state-by-state rotation for the Australian Racing Hall of Fame ceremonies will begin from the 2012 – 13 racing season.

“The ARB has agreed in principle to the Australian Racehorse of the Year Awards being held in conjunction with the annual Australian Racing Conference from the 2013 – 14 season subject to discussions around the future plans for the Conference,” Harding said.

Bob Charley AO has also been appointed as Chairman of the Australian Racing Hall of Fame selection panel by the ARB this week.