Saturday night will be strengthened as the feature night for showcasing Victorian trots as evidenced by the 2018-19 racing calendar released by Harness Racing Victoria (HRV) today, with Tabcorp Park Melton hosting over 40 Saturday night meetings and the majority of the remaining Saturday nights featuring premier country cups.
“Saturday night was always trots night in years past and it made sense returning to that space to ensure feature races are afforded the coverage they deserve with maximum exposure to the fans,” HRV CEO David Martin said.
Among a host of Saturday night features at Tabcorp Park Melton will be the 2018 Breeders Crown Finals. In recent years Australasia’s premier futurity grand finals have been placed among a crowded thoroughbred schedule in the daytime, making it harder to showcase.
“The move of the Breeders Crown Finals to Saturday night allows our broadcast partners a better opportunity to promote and deliver the coverage these races deserve,” Mr Martin said.
The new calendar features 10 extra race meetings based primarily on local horse population.
“It is vital we support the strong horse population in the Mildura region and that club has been granted three additional meetings, which the local participants will appreciate,” Mr Martin said.
“It is a similar story in North-Central Victoria, where Cobram and Echuca, have each picked up an extra meeting.”
HRV also reveals a new fast-class lead-up to the 2018 Inter Dominion, which comes about through country cup feature races at Kilmore, Cranbourne and Geelong finding new timeslots after direct consultation with the clubs.
For the full details click here to view the trots.com.au's coverage, which includes David Martin's extensive interview with Michael Felgate on RSN 927 this morning.
