Harness Racing Victoria (HRV) has announced programming changes to two of its time-honoured feature races, the City of Melton Plate and the Casey Classic.
HRV believes the national industry calendar will benefit from the changes, which sees the Casey Classic become a Group 2, $50,000 four and five-year-old race to be run at Tabcorp Park Melton on Saturday, November 12, while the City of Melton Plate will become a Group 3, $30,000 M0 or better free for all on Saturday, September 3.
Effectively the previous race conditions and stakemoney for the Melton Plate have been reassigned to the Casey Classic and moved from October to November, while the Casey Classic conditions have been reassigned to the September Melton Plate.
“Our hope is that the Casey Classic will provide a perfect lead-in option to the Western Australian feature races with the 4YO Championship (Group 2, $50,000) on November 25, the McInerney Classic (Group 1, $125,000) on December 2 and the 4YO Golden Nugget (Group 1, $200,000) on December 9 all to be run at Gloucester Park,” HRV GM Operations Vaughn Lynch said.
“It is all of our responsibility to think industry first and take a national approach when making changes to our state calendar and these changes will hopefully maximise the earning potential for participants who are about to embark on a trip west.”
Mr Lynch said the Melton Plate was moved to September to satisfy the specific timing requirements of long-time Melton Plate sponsor, the City of Melton.
The City of Melton’s association with the Melton Plate dates back to the race’s inception.
Cody Winnell (HRV Media/Communications Manager)