Racing Victoria to extend trial for overweight approvals

Racing Victoria (RV) has announced an extension of its trial regarding approvals for riders to compete one kilogram overweight in professional flat races.

Originally introduced as a one-month trial, all professional flat races since 1 March 2025 have been exempt from Local Rule (LR) 74A(3) which states the following:

LR 74A Procedure for horses carrying overweight in flat races
…
3) One kilogram overweight: 
(i) up to 51.5 kg: If a rider is to be one kilogram overweight, permission must be obtained from the Stewards who may grant approval if the nominator or trainer agrees and the horse is handicapped at 51.5 kg or less. 
(ii) 52 kg and above: A rider will not under normal circumstances be granted permission to ride one kilogram overweight if a horse is handicapped at 52 kg or more unless there is no other rider available.

Throughout the trial, if a rider, at any weight, is to ride one kilogram overweight, permission can be obtained from the Stewards, who may grant approval if the nominator or trainer agrees.

The exemption is designed to allow riders to maintain their association with horses which they might otherwise be removed from due to weight restrictions.

It is noted that the booking of a regular or targeted rider at one kilogram overweight may be the preferred option of the nominator or trainer to afford the horse its best opportunity of success.

The RV Board has endorsed a request from RV’s Integrity Services Department to extend the trial period to 31 May 2025, thus exempting all flat race meetings run during the relevant period from LR 74A (3).

The extension was considered necessary to allow the Stewards to obtain further feedback and fully assess the efficacy of the new procedures.

Consultation will continue with participants throughout April and May with the trial’s success or otherwise to determine whether or not it is adopted on a permanent basis.

The trial will continue to be conducted under strict processes with applications to ride one kilogram overweight to be made to the Stewards by no later than 2pm on the day of acceptances.
 

If a rider is granted approval to ride one kilogram overweight this will continue to be announced via the @RVStewards X (formerly Twitter) account and noted in the ‘probable weight section’ in the fields for the race meeting on the Racing Australia website.