The new racing calendar kicks in on July 1, with greyhound trainers certain to welcome the news of a full racing program thanks to an increased number of race meetings to be scheduled across the state.
GRV CEO Alan Clayton said that as a minimum, GRV is aiming to deliver on its regular 23 weekly race meetings for the season with extra meetings planned in Spring to compensate for anticipated cancellations during the warmer months when meetings are inevitably cancelled due to hot weather.
“As many as 27 race meetings could be scheduled some weeks, most notably during Spring-Summer, to compensate for the anticipation of cancellations during November-February,” Mr Clayton said.
“Victoria’s overall annual prize money distribution will be more than $47 million.
“The calendar aims to ensure there are opportunities there for our participants and clubs and for locally bred dogs.”
Greyhound racing’s recently elevated media coverage is also set to continue, with Channel 7’s popular Thrill of the Chase program to return to air in November for greyhound racing’s second annual Melbourne Festival of Racing.
The Gippsland Festival of Racing will again begin with the Sale Cup on Boxing Day, while a new Western District Festival is also set to be introduced.
GRV has also moved to create opportunities for participants impacted by the cancellation of two major events in 2020 – the Nationals and the National Straight Track Championship – because of travel restrictions around COVID-19.
These two feature events will be replaced in 2020 only by a Victorian State Championship and a Healesville Bonanza respectively.
In further good news, GRV has committed to programming additional ‘Gr8 Eight’ features, along with increasing opportunities around distance racing.
