Friday's Geelong meeting has been moved from the turf track to the synthetic track. This meeting was expected to be the first on the new turf track, but heavy rain throughout Victoria in the past 24 hours forced the switch.
The turf track was rated a heavy 10, and it was considered a chance the meeting would not be completed if it had gone ahead on the new turf track.
“The turf track was inspected this afternoon and deemed a Heavy 10.
"We could have taken the risk and started the meeting, but we’ve determined to take a conservative approach in the long term interests of the track,” RV’s Jamie McGuinness said.
He said the turf track was unusually heavy due to the works undertaken over the past 11 months, renovating the racing surface.
“Persistent rain has meant the surface has not been able to absorb the 17mm of rain which has fallen today to our satisfaction and thus the decision to transfer was made.
“It’s important to be clear that there is not a fault with the renovation, this is unfortunately a bi-product of the process undertaken to grow the new racing surface and the associated impacts of recent wet weather,” he added.
As a result of the transfer, distances for all eight races have been amended as follows; Race 1 from 1125m to 1100m, Race 2 from 2440m to 2200m, Race 3 from 1425m to 1300m, Race 4 from 2440m to 2200m, Race 5 from 1225m to 1200m, Race 6 from 1125m to 1100m, Race 7 from 1733m to 1900m and Race 8 from 1422m to 1300m.