Trial of race-free Mondays begins in Vic

Midweek racing in Melbourne has been moved to the twilight zone with Racing Victoria trialling one race-free day a week.

There will be no racing on Mondays for the next 2-1/2 months with RV introducing a double header on Wednesdays.

The country meeting from Monday will be in the early timeslot on Wednesday with the main midweek program to be run as a twilight fixture.

Wednesday’s eight-race Caulfield metropolitan meeting starts at 4.30pm and runs until 8pm while the earlier meeting at Moe kicks off at 12.30pm.

As the days get shorter, the Wednesday meetings in February and March will finish at 7.30 and 7pm respectively.

“This initiative is a first for racing in Victoria, and one which will assist us in future decision-making around the use of twilights and our customers’ preferences,” Racing Victoria’s racing operations manager Paul Bloodworth said.

“Due to the success of our night racing program and the significant turnover growth created by double-header Thursdays and Fridays, we are confident this trial period will be a success.”

Sandown will host six twilight Wednesday meetings during the trial period while two will be held at Ballarat and one at Bendigo.