Upcoming Sandown meetings transferred

Thursday 9 April 2015, 11:25am

The Melbourne Racing Club has reacted to recent criticism of the Sandown tracks by moving the next three midweek meetings to other venues.

The programs held at the Hillside course on March 18 and April 1, along with the Lakeside meetings on March 25 and last Monday, came under fire from trainers and jockeys and most recently Racing Victoria's chief steward Terry Bailey.

All expressed concerns over the condition of the circuits and a decision was made to shift the Hillside meeting set down for April 29 to Geelong.

The club, in consultation with RV, has now also moved next Wednesday's Lakeside meeting to Seymour and the Hillside meeting on April 22 to Geelong.

The meetings will retain midweek metropolitan status and prize money.

Paul Bloodworth, RV's racing operations manager, said the club had requested the transfers so it could consider what had led to the tracks under-performing.

MRC chief executive Brodie Arnhold said the Sandown courses had catered for a lot of race meetings over a long period of time.

"Recently, it appears that workload may have taken its toll, the result of which has been that the track has not performed to the high standard we are accustomed to," Arnhold said.

The transferred meetings have resulted in several program changes.

The Macktow Marathon Series Final over 4000m on April 15 has been moved to Caulfield on April 18 to make that program a 10-race card, while jumps races scheduled for April 22 have been moved to Ballarat a day later.

The next meetings scheduled for Sandown are on May 13 at the Lakeside track and May 20 on the Hillside course.

– AAP

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