umrum, allow me to explain further.

imagine we are to hold a 1 million dollar 1000m national sprint title. its an open event, the fastest horse wins.

every state gets to send two runners, expenses paid, for a field of 12 horses.

if you are in Perth and you want your horse to enter, the only way you can do so is by entering a heat in Northam or York or Bunbury etc..
from those heats the top 3 or 4 would go to semi finals in Perth followed by a final in Perth. Then the top two go off to the national final.

and, by using this method, you bring the best horses in Perth to Northam etc...
which helps attract people on those days to country racing.

of course every state would enter because you have a free ticket into the final for two horses !

the other advantage of working like this is that people in Tassie, WA ,SA etc all have an interest in the national title from an interstate rivalry point of view. you suddenly increase dramatically your potential audience, what might have been a local Sydney or Melbourne event becomes a nationwide event with the Perth media reporting X and Y's chances, the Adelaide media reporting Z and A's etc...

see ya
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