Three race meetings have been transferred from Ballarat to help the surface recover from the recent Grand National Steeplechase meeting.
Last month’s major jumps meeting was run in heavy conditions with four meetings leading up to the Grand National been moved to ensure it went ahead.
The meeting on Sunday week has been transferred to the Pakenham Synthetic track while the September 28 meeting has been moved to Mornington.
Warrnambool will now host the October 5 meeting.
The $50,000 Gold Nugget (1600m) was due to be run on Sunday week but has been moved to next Friday’s Geelong meeting so the race can still be run on turf, although it will have a distance change to 1700m.
“A recent inspection has determined that the Ballarat track would benefit from additional time before racing returns to the venue,” Racing Victoria’s executive general manager – infrastructure, Jamie McGuinness, said.
Ballarat Turf Club chief executive Lachlan McKenzie said the compaction issues in the home straight and an extremely wet winter had resulted in delayed recovery from the track’s last meeting.
“The track was oversown immediately after the Grand National, and we have an abundance of new turf growing throughout the sections where the cover had previously been sparse,” he said.
“Additionally, the 61mm of rain we received over the last 24 hours was certainly a compelling factor in the decision to transfer the meetings. By delaying our return to racing until 18 October, we can ensure that this new turf has adequate time to establish to the extent that it is suitable for racing.”
Saturday’s Kilmore meeting has been moved to the Pakenham synthetic track and Tuesday’s Ararat meeting has been moved to Swan Hill because of the wet weather.
