Take a close look behind the scenes at a harness racing meeting with exclusive access courtesy of Harness Racing Victoria's vets during a metropolitan meeting.

In a special feature for The HRV Hero Show, veterinarian Lesley Hawson provides insights into their race night duties, including swabs and endoscopies, and why they're motivated to always put the horse first.

"Vets are a really important part of race meetings, we are the advocate for the horse," Dr Hawson says.

"No vet has an invested interest in the horses that are racing, to us a horse is just a horse and so we need to be diligent in applyong our skills and our knowledge to ensuring that the welfare of the horse is put first.

"My favourite thing about being at race meetings is the horses and getting to work in a team that gets the job done. By ensuring that we are communicating with each other at all times we are ensuring that the animal's welfare and performance is optimised."

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