There will be rich pickings up for grabs in the Queensland summer carnival with the announcement of a lucrative summer crown series.
There will be $1.6million in bonus stakes money on offer as part of the summer crown series which will have a new-look format this year.
The bonuses for sprinters and two and three-year-old horses can be achieved by winning any three out of the five summer crown legs within one category held over three weekends at Doomben and finishing on Magic Millions Day at the Gold Coast on January 13 .
Sprinters will vie for a $400,000 bonus, while the two-year-old and three-year-old horses will race for $500,000 bonuses.
One of the new features is the summer crown points series with a bonus of $50,000 each for the leading trainers and jockeys at the completion of the 15 summer crown races over four race meetings.
RQ chief executive officer Dr Eliot Forbes said he hoped the bonuses on offer during the Queensland summer carnival would attract some of racing's leading names.
"The structure of the Queensland summer crowns provides the optimum lead-in platform for horses being set for the $10 million Magic Millions race day. It also aims to ensure national focus remains on Queensland racing over the summer period," Dr Forbes said.