Quote Originally Posted by Amlin View Post
Now that Sunday twilight meets have been pushed back to a later finish (9:30 tonight) day clubs find themselves getting into a Sunday slot less and less, unless you can snag an arvo timeslot of which there only about 12 available to Vic harness for feature events such as Cup races, Crown, Redwood etc.


So clubs such as Charlton, Warragul, Stawell etc are left with Monday's mainly to showcase their events (barely any Friday's now and no Tuesday arvo racing. No Weds or Thurs arvo racing either early in the season when number of meets cut back)


There is a push from the Country Clubs Assoc to secure a trial Saturday slot (either morning/arvo or twilight) of meets to test for popularity (probably Sky 2) - up to HRV to negotiate with SKY on making a timeslot available.
Many moons ago this was trialled by a few clubs running 4-6 race meetings for restricted prize money and classes of horse. Turnover was incredible in the 5-7pm gap. My understanding is that Menangle moving from Friday's to Saturday's negotiated the earlier start times to cash in on that fact as part of them "giving up" Friday's which allowed Canterbury gallops to run alongside Moonee Valley gallops.

I would be surprised if it would run on Sky 1 which it probably has to to make money. Not sure if the stats differences between Sky 1 & 2 - but they would be fairly significant.

There is a place for restricted racing (different class of horse) provided the mix is right.