Racing Victoria (RV) has today announced the transfer of next week’s meeting at Sportsbet-Ballarat among a series of programming amendments. Those amendments are:

• Sportsbet-Ballarat meeting transferred: The meeting at Sportsbet-Ballarat on Thursday, 16 July has been transferred to Donald. The transfer is designed give the Sportsbet-Ballarat track a break to ensure it is in its optimum condition for the Club’s feature meeting on Sunday, 26 July. That meeting, which was originally scheduled for William Hill Park (Sandown), is the final metropolitan meeting of the season. It is headlined by the $250,000 Grand National Steeplechase and $100,000 JJ Houlahan Hurdle with all flat races carrying metropolitan midweek prizemoney.

• Additional meeting programmed at Woolamai: An additional picnic meeting has been programmed at Woolamai on Saturday, 9 April 2016. This ensures the Club has a meeting in the first half of 2016 after its request for a meeting on New Year’s Day 2016 was declined. RV’s current policy is that no more than one picnic race meeting will be programmed on any given day. Both Woolomai and Merton conducted picnic race meetings on New Year’s Day 2015, with the latter retaining the timeslot in 2016 as the original custodian of the date.

• Tatura trials moved: Following a review of the trials schedule, the trials programmed at Tatura on Wednesday, 22 July will now be run a week earlier on Wednesday, 15 July. Nominations for these trials will now close at 12 noon next Monday, 13 July, with the program remaining unchanged.

• Cranbourne trials moved: The trials scheduled for Cranbourne on Tuesday, 25 August have been moved to Friday, 21 August. Nominations for these trials will now close at 12 noon on Wednesday 19, August 2015, with the program also remaining unchanged.

• Bendigo program amendment: The BM78 Handicap (2400m) programmed at Bendigo on Wednesday, 22 July has been changed to a BM84 Handicap (2400m) following trainer feedback.