Hot weather forecast shortens Flemington card
With hot weather expected for Super Saturday at Flemington, the meeting will be shortened to eight races with the potential of an early start.
The change has been brought about with the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting the temperature to reach 39 degrees at Flemington on Saturday.
Racing Victoria and the Victoria Racing Club moved on Tuesday to remove the Benchmark 84 Handicap over 2500m and the Benchmark 84 Handicap over 1100m from Saturday’s program.
The former will be staged at Moonee Valley on Friday night while the 1100m race will be held at Ballarat on Friday.
Given the possibility the meeting may need to start early and in turn finish before the heat of the day, those two have been removed from the card.
Acceptances for Saturday’s meeting will be taken as usual on Wednesday, with the first race timed to start at12.45pm.
A final decision will be made on Friday after the latest advice from the BOM on the forecast for Saturday and whether the meeting starts as scheduled in the afternoon or is brought forward to a 10.45am start.
The Group 1 Newmarket Handicap (1200m) is the feature of Saturday’s meeting where Imperatriz is the early favourite to extend her winning streak.
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