With the introduction of Greyhound Racing Victoria’s recently upgraded Hot Weather Policy, Bendigo’s race meeting scheduled for Friday, 1 January has been cancelled due to extremely hot weather conditions.

The new policy came into effect as of 26 December, 2015 with the maximum temperature at which greyhound racing or trialling can be conducted now being not higher than 38 degrees. This is two degrees less than previously allowed.

As at 12.00 Noon Thursday the Bureau of Meteorology has predicted high temperatures in various parts of Victoria for Friday, including a predicted 39 degrees Celsius in Bendigo.

This follows the cancellation of three Victorian greyhound race meetings on New Year’s Eve due to hot weather.

Victoria’s two other January 1 greyhound race meetings – at Traralgon (Morning – 36 degrees Celsius forecast) and Geelong (Night – 27 degrees Celsius forecast) will still go ahead, with the former flagged as ‘Heat Affected’.

All decisions taken by GRV surrounding the rescheduling or cancellation of Victorian greyhound race meetings and trial sessions now take into account the predicted temperature of travel times to and from the venue.

The decisions to cancel the meetings are undertaken after careful consideration and consultation with the weather bureau and are made with the welfare of the greyhounds being paramount.