Victorian harness racing dodge a bullet

Victorian harness racing has dodged a bullet.

Despite losing three race meetings across Wednesday and yesterday, racing will resume with two meetings today (Friday) – Yarra Valley (day) and Mildura (night).

It’s been a frantic couple of days for Harness Racing Victoria since it was notified very late Tuesday night that a participant had subsequently tested positive to COVID-19 after attending the Tabcorp Park Melton race meeting on August 2.

Crucially, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) downgraded Tabcorp Park Melton during that August 2 race meeting from a Tier 1 to a Tier 2 exposure site.

The exception is a handful of participants who have been deemed “close contacts” with the individual who subsequently tested positive.

Those individuals have to quarantine for 14 days (from the August 2 date) and test negative before leaving isolation.

In contrast, the other 60 or so participants only needed to isolate until they returned a negative test.

The impact of the huge scare has seen tomorrow (Saturday) night’s marquee Melton meeting – which has two Group 3 races – moved to Ballarat.

by Adam Hamilton