SATURDAY'S remaining three Victorian race meetings have been cancelled due to the extreme temperatures forecast throughout the state.

The meetings at Flemington, Wangaratta and Colac now join the picnic program from Yea, which had already been called off. 

RV Chief Executive, Bernard Saundry, said the decision to cancel thoroughbred racing across Victoria tomorrow was made in the best interests of all participants, staff and patrons.

 

“The weather across Victoria tomorrow will be extreme and we have taken a view, after examining the latest forecast, that it is in the best interests of all that we not conduct any race meetings,” Saundry said.

 

“We have a responsibility to protect the health and safety of all participants, both human and equine, along with staff and patrons, in extreme weather conditions such as that forecast tomorrow.

 

“It’s an unfortunate situation for clubs and patrons who were preparing to gather and celebrate Christmas at racetracks across Victoria, but we are not prepared to take any risks in these extreme conditions.

 

“With a busy schedule of race meetings across the Christmas-New Year period, including eight on Boxing Day, we believe there are alternative opportunities for horses to compete in over the next two weeks.

 

“That said, we will review the racing programming for the next fortnight and add races to existing meetings where required to accommodate those impacted by tomorrow’s abandonments.”

 

The first of those additions is the programming of two additional races at the William Hill Park (Sandown) meeting next Wednesday, 23 December 2015.

 

The new races are a BM84 2100m and BM84 2400m – both of which will serve as replacement lead-up races to the feature Bagot Handicap (2800m) at Flemington on New Year’s Day.

 

Nominations for all races at the William Hill Park (Sandown) meeting will be open until 10am (AEST) tomorrow to accommodate horses entered at the abandoned meetings.

 

RV confirmed that the race meetings scheduled today at Yarra Valley (first race 12.02pm) and Moonee Valley (first race 6.45pm) will proceed as planned under the guidance of RV’s hot weather policy.

 

 

RV further noted that the start time for Sunday’s meeting at Bendigo was moved back to 2.18pm yesterday with the temperature forecast to drop in the region by early afternoon.