Racing Victoria is turning its attention towards the spring carnival after almost a month of crowd-free racing due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Chief executive Giles Thompson says RV is starting to shift its thinking from a week-to-week basis to a longer-term outlook.
He said Victoria’s biggest racing clubs were considering different scenarios for their carnival.
“One of the challenges we face is there are so many unknowns,” Thompson told RSN927.
“As we sit here, we just don’t know what the world will look like in three weeks time.
“We didn’t know what it would look like three weeks ago to what it would look like now and what it will look like in mid-May.
“We are beginning to run out of time and will have to make calls as we enter June.
“Right now, we don’t think we have to make any core decisions about the spring and we’re hoping that we’ll continue to race and if we’re continuing to race in four weeks time, then we can be more optimistic about the spring program.”
More than 253 races have been held since racing in Victoria went behind closed doors on March 13.
Thompson said RV was continuing its drive towards reducing the number of people on course during race meetings.
“The reason why we are still racing today is because of these protocols and people are abiding by these protocols,” Thompson said.
“I can’t emphasise how important that is for those people in government and in the health authorities who understand what they (protocols) are and to see them being implemented.”
Having entered a phase of prize money reductions brought on by a downturn in turnover, Thompson said it was too early to say whether spring purses would be affected.
“We don’t have to make those decisions now and I’d rather wait until we have to because we’ll have better information further down the track,” he said.
