‘It’s official! The annual Australia Day race meeting usually held at Hanging Rock has been switched to Kyneton.
This means there will be two race meetings in five days at the Kyneton course – the 2021 Hanging Rock Cup meeting on Tuesday, January 26 (Australia Day), and the annual Woodend Cup meeting on Saturday, January 30.
Yesterday afternoon, Racing Victoria and Kyneton and Hanging Rock Racing Club jointly announced the Australia Day meeting has been transferred from Hanging Rock to Kyneton.
The New Year’s Day meeting last Friday was held at Kyneton instead of at ‘The Rock’, and there was strong speculation then that the Australia Day meeting would follow suit.
Racing Victoria’s racing operations manager Josh Grimwood said the K&HRRC had advised that it would be difficult to implement the required COVIDSafe measures at Hanging Rock, and as such the club desired to transfer the meeting to Kyneton.
The feature event, the $25,000 Hanging Rock Cup, will now be staged over 1850m, rather than 1800m.
Minor distance changes have been made to other events on the program.
In line with current COVID restrictions, the Australia Day meeting is a ticketed event, with no walk-ups on the day, along the same lines as last Friday at Kyneton.
The local club has arranged special packages for the Australia Day and Woodend Cup meetings; call the club on 5422 1866 or email l.evans@countryracing.com.au for further information.
