Harness Racing Victoria (HRV) is on track to move out of region-based racing on July 1 (next Wednesday) and has set July 13 as the target date to resume racing at all Victorian tracks.
The news will be a boon for industry participants and clubs with trainers, drivers and owners able to aspire to win feature and metropolitan prizemoney for the first time since Victoria moved into a region-based model in April due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
From July 1-12 harness racing will be conducted at the nine clubs that have been part of regional racing – Ballarat, Bendigo, Cranbourne, Kilmore, Melton, Mildura, Shepparton, Stawell and Terang, permitting trainers from across the state to nominate their horses at these clubs conducting the race meeting – and HRV will work with Trots Clubs Victoria to ensure that from July 13 all Victorian clubs are comfortable in managing the strict protocols in place to keep the industry safe.
HRV CEO Dayle Brown spoke glowingly of the industry’s response to COVID-19.
“I am enormously proud of the way in which our clubs, participants and staff have risen to the challenge and adhered to the stringent protocols in place to keep us racing as we navigate through this period. They should all feel proud of their efforts, and it is because of those efforts we are on track to continue phasing out of regional racing,” Mr Brown said.
Every Saturday night during July will showcase metropolitan racing at Tabcorp Park Melton with feature races to headline those meetings.
“It is so important as an industry we get this next step right,” Mr Brown said of the July 13 target for extending racing to all venues.
“Between now and then we will be working hand in hand with Trots Clubs Victoria to ensure all clubs are comfortable and have what they need in place to manage the stringent precautionary protocols to keep our industry safe.
“As we have seen in recent days we are living in a very fluid environment. The HRV Business Continuity Team is working hard in the background to put measures in place so that we can pivot quickly if required should circumstances change at any stage.
“Our owners are so important and having them safely attend the races is a top priority. The team is working to make this happen and we’ll have an update next week.”
HRV’s COVID-19 race meeting protocols will remain in place and can be viewed here.
HRV is also encouraging industry participants to download the COVIDSafe app.
Follow HRV’s social media channels at Twitter and Facebook for the latest Victorian trots news.
Click here to view the Victorian July racing calendar.
Media enquiries: cwinnell@hrv.org.au