Racing Minister Winston Peters and former jockey Noel Harris at the Wellington Cup.

Winston Peters has repaid the electoral support of the racing industry with changes to the bloodstock tax rules and plans for an all-weather track.

Peters announced $4.8m for tax deductions towards the cost of breeding high quality horses, in Thursday's budget. The change would encourage new investment in the breeding industry, he said, enhancing the country's racing stock and making it a more financially attractive industry.

Peters said the previous rules favoured established breeding businesses rather than attracting new investment.

PETER MEECHAM / STUFF Sir Patrick Hogan witha Zabeel-Organdy bay colt he sold at Karaka sales, Auckland.

Under the new rules, investment in yearlings would be tax deductible if bought with the intention of breeding for profit.

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NZ First has not disclosed its party donors in the annual declarations to the Electoral Commission, this month, but Peters did have outspoken support at last year's election from the Waikato thoroughbred and bloodstock industry.

Sir Patrick and Lady Justine Hogan took out this full-page advertisement in September 2018 in The Informant, a racing industry newspaper, endorsing New Zealand First in the 2018 general election.

Sources said they expected Peters to deliver their wish-list: an all-weather track, tax breaks for breeding, restructuring the NZ Racing Board and potentially outsourcing some TAB services to an Australian provider.

Industry leaders were vocal in their support of NZ First, with thoroughbred breeders Sir Patrick and Lady Hogan taking out a full-page advertisement in industry newspaper The Informant to encourage racing participants to party vote NZ First in September last year.

Hogan's plea came after the party's former spokesman for racing Clayton Mitchell pledged, if elected, to support a government-funded all-weather race track.

Sir Patrick and Lady Justine Hogan: "There is only one horse to back."

Sir Patrick Hogan couldn't be reached for comment this weekend, but in the full-page advertisement he and wife Justine said the National Government had been apathetic to the idea and Winston Peters was the only political figurehead that showed any passion for the racing industry.

"To all those eligible to vote – breeders, owners, trainers, jockeys, administrators, punters and the many businesses that are financially supported by the industry – this is an enormous opportunity to support New Zealand First's initiative to have 100 per cent what we've ben asking for," the couple wrote.

Peters insisted on the racing portfolio in negotiations to form a governing coalition and, in January at the Karaka National Yearling bloodstock sales, the new Racing Minister confirmed plans for the all-weather track. He said the track would save millions from being lost in abandoned races and give the industry more certainty.

MARTIN DE RUYTER / STUFF Former National leader Bill English meets fisheries boss Sir Peter Talley during the 2018 general election campaign.

Details for the track are still vague and a location has not yet been decided.

Karaka-based thoroughbred owner and breeder Kent Baigent also donated $15,000 to Mitchell's election campaign last year.

When asked what other changes he hoped Peters would make for the industry, Baigent refused to comment.

Peters regained the racing portfolio when he negotiated a coalition with Labour last year. This came after Ardern declined to give NZ First the fisheries portfolio, due to his party receiving significant donations from seafood magnate Peter Talley and others in the fisheries industry.

Although names like Baigent and Talley were disclosed as donors to individual NZ First MPs, the party itself did not disclose the source of any of its $550,000 in donations.