Racing at Kilmore.

© Racing Photos

By Kate Watts

Racing Victoria has confirmed Thursday’s meeting at Kilmore will go ahead, despite investigations continuing into the horrific incident that caused its last meeting on April 12 to be abandoned before it had begun.

It was the incident that shocked the racing industry and wider public, when two 40cm metal spikes were found inserted into the Kilmore track near the fence close to the 400m mark, in an apparent act of vandalism.

The Seymour Criminal Investigation Unit is continuing to investigate the situation but confirmed on Monday that the perpetrator behind the act had not been found.

Despite this, both the Kilmore Racing Club and Racing Victoria say they’re confident Thursday’s meeting will be able to go ahead safely, with additional security measures to be put in place.

“The Kilmore track is in a suitable condition to host their meeting next Thursday,” explained a Racing Victoria spokesperson.

“The Club has dragged, mowed and inspected the track on numerous occasions since the abandonment and we are satisfied that there are no further objects on the track at present.

“We have agreed on a process with the Club and the stakeholders between now and the commencement of the meeting to ensure that remains the case.”
Nominations were taken for the meeting on Monday and Kilmore Racing Club CEO Ben Murphy said he’s confident Thursday’s eight-race card will go ahead without complication with the club trying to put the track vandalism incident behind it.

“It remains a police matter, we’re confident that hopefully it was an isolated incident,” Murphy said.

“The right decision was definitely made to call off the last meeting, it could have been so dangerous for both jockeys and horses, I’m just glad our procedures worked and we found them.

“We really just want to get back to racing and having people enjoy a great day at the club,” he said.

This article first appeared on the Racing Victoria website (racing.com) and is reprinted here with their kind permission. For more on the Off the Track program please visit rv.racing.com/the-horse/off-the-track

READ THE LATEST NEWS ARTICLES HERE