Due to the current decline in the population of racing greyhounds changes have been made to the Victorian Racing schedule to better align with the current racing populations needs.

The following racing schedule will apply to Victorian Greyhound Racing meetings from 1 March 2019:

• 2 x Metropolitan Meetings held at Sandown and The Meadows (same)
• 10 x Full Stake Provincial Meetings (-3 Meetings)
• 2 x Hybrid Meetings consisting of 6 Full Stake Provincial Races and 6 Level 3 races (250+ Ranking events) held at Warrnambool and Horsham. (new)
• 1 x Half Stake Provincial Meeting held at Healesville on Sunday (same)
• 6 x Level 3 Meetings graded utilising Aged Prizemoney (APM) (APM limit of $2,000) (condensed)
• 2 x Level 3 Meetings graded utilising APM although will be selected from the BOTTOM UP. (new)

The total number of meetings and races programmed along with the total amount of prizemoney remains unchanged, the structure of race meetings is the only modification.

The expected benefits of the updated schedule are as follows:

• Provides a racing program more closely aligned to the current racing population. Currently the median of the population has a ranking point level of 250 points or an APM value of $2,000.
• These limits aim to assist fields for the Full Stakes Provincial meetings to race against similarly rated opposition.
• The meetings selected from the BOTTOM UP are expected to be popular with the lowest level of the racing population, as connections will be confident of competing against similarly rated opposition.
• BOTTOM UP meetings have been developed to encourage owners and trainers to persist with greyhounds that would otherwise retire or not commence a racing career and increase the utilisation rate of Victorian bred greyhounds.

Trainers should be aware of the following when nominating for the updated racing schedule:

• Metropolitan and Provincial field selection and order or entry remains the same.
• The APM value of each greyhound is listed on the form page on FastTrack.
• How a greyhounds APM value is calculated can be found on page 3 of the GRV Grading Guidelines.
• GRV encourage trainers with greyhounds that have an APM value below $2,000 to nominate for Level 3 meetings.
• Maiden greyhounds must have three race starts before being able to be drawn into a BOTTOM UP meeting (note Maidens with less than 3 starts will be manually excluded at the time of grading).
• APM Meetings will be non-penalty for winning greyhounds that are Grade 5 or higher when conducted at Level 3 Meetings
• Greyhounds will rely solely on their APM value to gain selection with no order of entry rights at Level 3 meetings.
• The APM limit of $2,000 will be modified depending on the demand at certain tracks.

Members of the GRV Racing Department will be at the following venues in February to answer any questions or alternatively can be contacted via email at [email protected]