RACE FREE WEEK TRIAL ABANDONED

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, December 29, 2021

Racing Victoria has announced that the ‘race free week,’ which was trialled in July, will be discontinued and, as such, will not form part of the Racing Victoria calendar in 2022.

Towards the end of July this year, Racing Victoria trialled a five day race-free period which was met with significant resistance from some racing participants even before it got underway.

That discontent was ramped up during the ‘race free week’ itself.

At the time Racing Victoria’s Executive General Manager of racing Greg Carpenter told Racing.com that the negative reaction had surprised him.

“This was announced three times,” Carpenter said. “It has been out there for 18 months so there has been plenty of time to make plans for this period.”

Following the first ‘race free week’ trial, Carpenter, as reported on Racenet, further addressed concerns saying, “We understand horses have to be fed and exercised but there’s a lot of people involved in the industry other than trainers and staff.

“It’s true, trainers and their staff have to turn up and care for their horses every day. It’s not just about trainers and staff, also about jockeys, form analysts, broadcasters, everyone involved in the industry, there is no break from race day.

“It’s five days off for everyone who’s caught up in the daily grind and daily cycle of racing.”

But, importantly, Carpenter also noted: “We‘ll be informed by the learnings from it as to how we go or navigate it in the future.”

That navigation route has now been formally plotted leaving a ‘race free week’ as an also ran and a fading memory.

It might have looked good in theory but, in practice it was problematic to many, and it seems that people power has now carried the day.