A new race for two-year-olds has been introduced to the spring program at Flemington, bringing an earlier start to juvenile racing in Melbourne.
The Victoria Racing Club has announced it will host the first two-year-old race of the season on Wednesday, September 25 over 900m.
The VRC says the reasoning behind the late September two-year-old race on its midweek ‘Spring Classics Preview Day’ is that it will give the juveniles race experience on Flemington’s straight course.
It will act as a lead-in race to the Listed Maribyrnong Trial Stakes (1000m) in early October and potentially to one of the feature races for two-year-olds during Melbourne Cup week in November.
The Maribyrnong Trial Stakes, held on October 5 this year, has been Melbourne’s first juvenile race of the season in recent years.
The VRC has also announced the Listed Poseidon Stakes for three-year-olds on October 5 will now be held over 1100m rather than 1400m to provide another lead-up to the Group One Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) at Flemington.
