Racing divided into districts

AS OF Thursday, Victorian harness racing will be conducted with racing in defined districts restricted to participants from those areas.  

Harness Racing Victoria today revealed a new region-based racing calendar to limit travel for participants, in line with public health recommendations to slow the spread of the Coronavirus.

Tomorrow night’s Mildura meeting has been cancelled due to the Mildura Cup being postponed. That meeting has been replaced by a new Bendigo meeting.

“This model allows us to keep essential personnel and participants at race meetings. It also provides us the best opportunity to continue conducting race meetings,” HRV chief executive Dayle Brown said.

The racing model will see Victoria divided into six districts, with meetings conducted at nine tracks – Inner West (Melton and Ballarat), West (Terang and Stawell), East (Kilmore and Cranbourne), North West (Mildura), Central (Bendigo) and North East (Shepparton).

All previous calendar feature events will be cancelled. Details regarding prizemoney will be advised.

Every Victorian participant has been assigned a specific region in which they are allowed to compete. The list can be viewed here.

“The support we have received through regular and thorough consultation with our industry representative bodies during this challenging period has been really important and I thank them for that,” Brown said.

Victorian Trainers’ and Drivers’ Association president Lance Justice stated the VTDA welcomed the move.

“Naturally there will be some who would like to have been assigned to another region or race at other tracks,” Justice said. “I understand that, but we must unite to support this model so as we can continue earning prizemoney and paying the bills.

“The racing office staff at HRV will be flat out reworking the programs and the fields. We have been given assurances they will program to provide as many opportunities as possible throughout all the regions.

“They are using real-time data to program to best suit racing populations within each region. It’s important now we let them do their job, don’t inundate them with phone calls, and we’ll do ours. We’re all in this together.”

The new-look Victorian harness racing calendar at this stage for the next fortnight will be:

Monday 30 March: Cranbourne day
Tuesday 31 March: Bendigo night
Wednesday 1 April: Stawell day, Shepparton night
Thursday 2 April: Ballarat day, Mildura night
Friday 3 April: Kilmore day, Bendigo night
Saturday 4 April: Melton night
Sunday 5 April: Cranbourne twilight
Monday 6 April: Shepparton day
Tuesday 7 April: Terang night
Wednesday 8 April: Kilmore day, Mildura night
Thursday 9 April: Melton day, Bendigo night
Saturday 11 April: Melton night
Sunday 12 April: Shepparton night

Please note, this calendar is subject to change with HRV exploring the possibility of providing additional opportunities for the industry.

• HRV Media