Harness Racing Victoria (HRV) will unveil a new-look feature race calendar in early June but today revealed the 2020 Vicbred Super Series will be run in December, culminating in finals night on New Year’s Eve at Tabcorp Park Melton.

HRV General Manager Stephen Bell said the Breeders Crown series would go ahead as planned in November before the Summer Vicbred Super Series.

“We want to provide as much certainty to our participants as we can, so while we’re yet to finalise dates for the Vicbred Super Series I can confirm it will be held in December with the finals on New Year’s Eve at Melton,” Bell said.

“The Breeders Crown will be run in November, and in early June we’ll release a new-look Victorian feature race calendar for when we come out of region-based racing on July 1.

“The message to trainers is it’s time to start bringing your metropolitan class horses back into work because we want to hit the ground running in July.”

In reaffirming July 1 as the target date for metropolitan and feature racing to return – providing the Government COVID-19 restrictions have not been escalated before that – Bell implored the industry to download the COVIDSafe App.

“It’s important for all harness racing people to download that app because if there is an outbreak, we need to be able to trace it,” Bell said.

“We all need to play our role and continue to observe the strict safety measures which will remain in place at harness tracks.”

Attendance at Victorian tracks will continue to be restricted to only licenced people with a horse engaged at a race meeting, essential racing club and HRV staff, and all attendees must sign a declaration form upon arrival, undergo temperature checks and respect physical distancing at all times.

Today HRV begins its three-region racing structure – consisting of East (Bendigo, Shepparton, Cranbourne, Kilmore), West (Stawell, Terang, Ballarat, Melton) and North-West (Mildura) – merging zones from the previous six-region structure put in place in early April.

“The six-region model served us well during an uncertain time, allowing us to continue racing and our participants to keep earning income,” Bell said.

“We have run significantly more race meetings than previously planned during this past two months and in coming weeks we envisage the horse population will grow as trainers bring back horses for the July resumption of metropolitan racing.”

HRV has released programs for June 1-7, with June 8-14 available later this week. Race programs for the remainder of June will be released early next month.

 

Media enquiries: cwinnell@hrv.org.au