A five-month pilot program trialling the effectiveness of 13 and 14-race cards gets underway today.

Ballarat’s day meeting, which begun at 10.29am, features 14 races, while twilight meetings at Shepparton and Warrnambool will be 13-race cards.

For those who bet with TAB, only the first 12 races of each card will be visible under the meeting names.

But the 13th and 14th races can be found further down the meeting pages, under the meeting names ‘Ballarat Extra’, ‘Shepparton Extra’ and ‘Warrnambool Extra’.

Sportsbet punters will find all races under the one meeting name.

The trial, which runs from today until 30 January 2025, will also see 13-race cards at Geelong on Tuesdays, Bendigo on Wednesdays, and Shepparton and Warrnambool on Thursdays, and 14-race cards at Ballarat on Wednesday nights.

The extra races will be in exchange for one less Sunday day meeting, starting this weekend.

The trial is ultimately aimed at optimising wagering outcomes in key timeslots and better utilising the greyhound population by testing the potential benefits of conducting a similar number of races across a week but doing it with one less race meeting.

With two out of 13 tracks currently closed for racing, the pilot is also aimed at better meeting the demands of the racing program with only 11 tracks currently operational.