Racing Victoria will become one of the first sporting organisations to mandate vaccinations for all of its participants.
All participants; trainers, jockeys, stable staff and race day officials will be required to have at least one vaccination doses prior to Caulfield Cup day (18th October) to be allowed into race meetings and public training centres across the state.
Participants will then be required to be fully vaccinated by Zipping Classic Day (27th November).
RV CEO Giles Thompson told Racing.com “that the only way out of the current COVID pandemic is to increase vaccination rates within the community to allow greater freedoms”.
“Unlike other sports, racing operates on a year-round daily basis with a highly mobile workforce, so it is therefore imperative that we do our utmost to protect the health and safety of our workforce and of the industry, which has been able to safely continue over the past 18 months courtesy of strict biosecurity protocols,” he said.
“The advice from our Chief Medical Office and our risk assessment has determined that mandatory COVID vaccination is the right decision for the health and safety of our staff, participants and industry in these extraordinary times, and that’s a majority view that has come from our participants also when surveyed.
“Our participants want to protect themselves, their families and their livelihoods as social restrictions ease in the future and we see greater movement across the state and mandatory vaccination as a condition of entry is our way to do that.
“I want to let our participants and staff know that whilst we have set important deadlines for compliance, we will continue to monitor vaccine supply in the weeks ahead and retain some flexibility if issues arise, particularly for the younger members of our workforce.”
