Go, go, go for Good Fridays

THE experiment of staging race meetings in Tasmania on Good Friday this year proved so successful that Tasracing has included them in next season’s calendar as well as a greyhound meeting in Devonport to give the state blanket race coverage on the special public holiday.

Crowd support and turnover on the Good Friday thoroughbred meeting in Launceston this year was outstanding and the Tasmanian Trotting Club was satisfied with numbers at its harness meeting that day.

West Australian thoroughbreds was the first to introduce racing on Good Friday three years ago and it remains the only other state with racing scheduled on Good Friday in 2019.

Tasmania’s harness racing industry has received a major boost for the 2019-20 season with 16 additional meetings scheduled to be broadcast on Sky 1 as part of the code’s allocation of 87 meetings.

This season a great proportion of the state’s harness meetings have been shown on Sky 2, but with more meetings to be broadcast on Sky 1 it is expected to encourage greater wagering turnover on the state’s harness product.

Four Saturday night harness meetings on Sky 1 also have been scheduled to showcase feature meetings, which are the Australian Drivers’ Championship (November), Tasmania Cup (March), Tasmanian Golden Apple (December) and the Easter Cup meeting in April. A total of 70 thoroughbred meetings have been scheduled, which includes seven meetings on King Island from late November through to late January.

The popular night thoroughbred meetings in Launceston will again be a feature of the code’s calendar with 20 meetings scheduled from October 16 through to April 24.

And a Saturday day thoroughbred meeting with Sky 1 coverage has been scheduled for December 7.

Greyhounds have been allocated 165 meetings with the same schedule applied to all three venues with the addition of the Good Friday meeting in Devonport.

Another addition to next season’s calendar is the inclusion of three multi-code harness-greyhound meetings on a Friday night between November and February.

“After much consultation with clubs and Sky Channel we have delivered the best result possible for the 1019-20 season,” Tasracing chief executive Paul Eriksson said.

The redevelopment of the Elwick track remains on target with the first meeting on the new grass track scheduled for February 2, which boasts the Tasmanian Derby as the feature race.

“The industry is looking forward to the return of thoroughbred racing at Elwick after the redevelopment with the first Sunday in February the target date for the resumption of racing at the venue,” Eriksson said.

The Group 3 Hobart Cup remains scheduled for February 9 and next season the Group 3 Bow Mistress for fillies and mares will also be a part of that meeting.