Harness Racing Victoria (HRV) will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation daily and is on track to resume feature racing from September 26 as advised last week, confirmed CEO Dayle Brown today.
Following Sunday’s Victorian Government announcement of a roadmap to reopen Victoria, Brown reaffirmed that HRV’s Business Continuity Team would stay abreast of the situation and there was no need to change course.
“We welcome the Government’s safe and steady roadmap to reopening Victoria and remain committed to following all Government health advice to ensure the health and wellbeing of our people during this pandemic,” Brown said.
“As announced last week, we are aiming to move out of our current regional structure on September 26 as we build up towards the Group 2 TAB Smoken Up Sprint on October 3 and the Group 1 Pryde’s EasiFeed Victoria Cup on October 10.
“While the move out of the regional structure will be a welcomed step, it will certainly not mean an end to the restrictions we are currently observing during COVID-19.”
Victorian harness racing will continue to observe the following protocols at race meetings:
- Restricting access to race meetings to only essential licenced participants and staff.
- Restricting access to drivers’ rooms.
- Observing physical distancing requirements at race meetings and trials, including the use of vacant stalls to keep participants apart.
- Temperature testing upon entry to the track.
- All essential staff and participants entering the track are required to sign an Infectious Diseases Declaration.
- Drivers will only wear one set of colours for the entire racing program to remove the need for drivers to share silks.
“I’d like to thank all industry participants and staff for the way in which they are looking out for each other and observing these protocols,” Brown said.
“The collaboration between HRV, clubs, our stakeholder bodies and participants has meant we have been able to safely continue racing albeit under stringent protocols since March.
“Harness racing has been able to sustain the 4300 full-time equivalent jobs that it provides throughout the state and continue contributing $600million annually to the Victorian economy.
“We’ll continue to promptly communicate with industry should the situation change at any stage.”
Media enquiries: cwinnell@hrv.org.au
