October
AugustHub life?
Now that Melbourne (and Victoria) have gone into more extreme lockdown measures for the COVID-19 emergency, it might be time for Racing Victoria to look at a new way of holding race meetings.
With the move to restrict people’s movements around the state, perhaps the one-off race days at smaller country tracks should be replaced by more meetings where the most horses are: Melbourne, Cranbourne, Ballarat, Warrnambool.
This would remove the need for horse-transport companies to be picking up horses from, say, metropolitan stables, and driving them hundreds of kilometres to remote country tracks.
As limited numbers of people are allowed at the races — apart from those connected with the horses — and there is therefore no tourism benefit for a race meeting being held in a country town, cutting down the numbers of people travelling can only be a good thing.
It would also reduce owners’ costs associated with moving their horses from one part of the state to another.
Once the restrictions are lifted, racing can go back to its statewide coverage, as before.
Geelong West (Vic)