The industry has had plenty to digest this week with the release on Tuesday of draft calendar for the remainder of this season and a proposed calendar for the early part of the 2020-21 season.  They can be found here.

 

Following that release we decided to try something a bit different and we conducted a Facebook Live session on Thursday morning to answer as many questions as we could.

 

It was great to see the level of engagement with many people sending their questions in via email, or on our LOVERACING.NZ Facebook page.  This allowed us to collate them as – to be expected – a lot of you have similar concerns.

 

While we couldn’t answer all of your questions – some things, such as trial dates and programmes, are still being worked through – we could at least give you an expected timeline.

 

If you missed the Facebook live Q&A you can still find it on the LOVERACING.NZ Facebook site and we will be doing another session next Thursday to provide updates and answer more questions.

 

A major focus for our team over the past few weeks as been the developments of the protocols to allow us to return to training, trialling and racing.  NZTR has now confirmed with government that clubs, trainers and training centres can resume their business activities – training, trialling and racing – under alert level 3. 

 

This afternoon we were advised by WorkSafe that the guidance we have shared with the industry today may still require further updates as a result of their continuing to work through their endorsement process.

 

We understand that the industry is eager to see a return to the track and we are confident that we will be able to do so safely under the protocols which we have put in place for every part of the processes around training and racing.                                                                                                                                                  

 

It’s really important that clubs and trainers work with staff to understand the protocols and develop and comply with your health and safety plans for working under COVID-19 Alert Level 3.

 

We all have a part to play in keeping ourselves, our staff and others we may deal with along the way, safe once we move to level 3.  

 

We have seen our well our friends across the Tasman have managed to incorporate strict protocols into their racing and training activities and have every faith that Kiwi horsemen and women will maintain the same high standards.

 

Enjoy your final weekend in lockdown and we look forward to seeing our horses returning to training once we reach alert level 3 next week.