Racing Victoria to trial race-free Mondays next season
RACING Victoria has announced its dates for the 2017/18 season which will see a dramatic increase in race-free days.
Starting from August 1 2017 to July 31, 2018 – RV has approved 557 meetings over 353 days which will include a trial of race-free Mondays over a 10-week period from January 15 to March 26.
The Monday meetings will be transferred into another Wednesday meeting with one of the two Victorian Wednesday meetings being run in the twilight timeslot.
The trial of the twilight meeting is to determine whether there is a demand for twilight racing on Wednesday, as opposed to just Thursday’s at Pakenham and Friday’s at Cranbourne and Moonee Valley.
The first twilight meeting will be held at Caulfield with the other nine meetings being spread around Sandown, Ballarat and Bendigo.
RV Manager of Racing Operations, Paul Bloodworth, is expecting the Victorian public to embrace the new twilight racing initiative.
“We are pleased to introduce important changes to the racing calendar next year underscored by a 10-week, race-free trial on Mondays,” Bloodworth said.
“This initiative, which will run between January and March 2018 during daylight savings, is a first for racing in this state and one that we expect will be warmly embraced by the industry.”
Bloodworth will be interested in seeing the turnover figures for the twilight racing and that will largely affect whether the trial is a success.
“We will be following with close interest the affect that this trial has on wagering and participation as we convert the Monday meeting into a Wednesday fixture with one of the two meetings on the day becoming a twilight,” Bloodworth said.
“Given the success of our night racing program and the significant turnover growth being realised on double-header Thursdays and Fridays, we are confident that it will be a successful trial.”
There has also been a change to a number of race dates during the spring carnival. Due to the AFL Grand Final moving back to its end of September timeslot, the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes returns to Saturday October 7 – the week following the Grand Final – after being held on a Sunday for the past two seasons.
The Benella Cup will return to its public holiday Friday afternoon timeslot and the 2017/18 night racing season will launch that night with the Group 1 Moir Stakes at Moonee Valley.
Mornington will return to the AFL Grand Final Day timeslot with the Group 1 Underwood Stakes meeting at Caulfield to be held on Sunday, October 1.
“The VRC and Melbourne Racing Club (MRC) will also benefit from a change of dates to the AFL Grand Final, which sees two feature Group 1 race meetings in the spring – the Turnbull and Underwood Stakes – return to their traditional post-Grand Final timeslots ahead of the Caulfield Cup Carnival on 14 October – a fortnight after the Grand Final,” Bloodworth said.
“The changes that we have been able to facilitate to programming early in the 2017 Spring Racing Carnival can only serve to assist in showcasing our elite races and engage Victorians in our premier racing period.”
There has also been changes to the Country Cup schedule which includes a new two-day Wangaratta Cup Carnival to be trialled over the weekend of March 3 and March 4.
The Mildura Cup will also be reinstated as a two-day carnival, the Echuca Cup moves to an early autumn timeslot and the Tatura Cup moves from March to the spring racing carnival on September 23.
“The Race Dates have again been constructed with a focus on continuing to build customer engagement, exploring opportunities to grow wagering returns to the industry and ensuring that event days across the state have the best opportunity to succeed,” Bloodworth said.
“From a country perspective, we have instituted changes around the Wangaratta, Mildura, Echuca and Tatura Cups to help foster even greater engagement with their local communities and to build upon the meetings as a destination event for racing fans statewide.”
Other changes in the 2017/18 race dates include:
– The removal of two Flemington meetings in December to allow an extended seven-week break for track maintenance following the Melbourne Cup Carnival. Flemington will resume racing on New Year’s Day 2018.
– In lieu of the extended maintenance break, Flemington will host an additional meeting on 5 August, 2017 – the first Saturday of the season – and a new midweek meeting on Wednesday, 27 September which will host the newly created Victoria Derby and VRC Oaks Trials.
– The staging of a non-TAB meeting on Melbourne Cup Day at Cranbourne bringing to seven the number of race meetings across the state on the day.
– The Australia Day metropolitan meeting to be held under lights with The Valley hosting the Group 2 Australia Stakes, while Caulfield’s traditional Australia Day meeting moves to Saturday, 27 January, 2018 due to the fall of dates.
“Overall, we believe that the combination of these new and renewed initiatives will serve to enhance the racing calendar throughout Victoria next season. It is always a challenge to strike the right balance and wishes of all Clubs and stakeholders, but we feel that these dates do,” Bloodworth added.