Track enhancements and strategic initiatives shape 2026-27 Victorian Race Dates

Racing Victoria (RV) has today released the 2026-27 Victorian Race Dates which feature required amendments due to track availability alongside strategic changes designed to broaden customer engagement and maximise industry returns.

The 2026-27 season commences on 1 August 2026 and has seen 528 race meetings scheduled to match Victoria’s active racehorse population and support field sizes, whilst navigating major works at The Valley and Caulfield.

The release of the Race Dates follows extensive analysis and consultation with Racing Clubs, Country Racing Victoria (CRV), Australian Trainers' Association (ATA), Victorian Jockeys' Association (VJA), Thoroughbred Racehorse Owners' Association (TROA), and Thoroughbred Breeders Victoria (TBV) through RV's Racing Forums.

A summary of the 2026-27 Race Dates is as follows:

Volume of Meetings

• The 2026-27 season will comprise 101 metropolitan, 380 country, 15 country non-TAB and 32 picnic race meetings; and
• Featured among the schedule is 51 night meetings, 35 twilight meetings and 23 synthetic track meetings, with the latter down from a peak of 44 meetings a decade ago.

Key Strategic Changes

The following strategic changes are aimed at growing customer engagement to maximise returns for investment back into the industry. They are made within the confines of track availability which places some constraints on scheduling flexibility in 2026-27.

More Premium Tracks on Fridays: 

• Analysis of turnover and active customers by day and time of the week indicates that Friday afternoon race meetings garner strong interest and present an opportunity for further growth;
• Accordingly, the number of Friday afternoon meetings scheduled at key country wagering venues in Ballarat (turf), Bendigo, Geelong, Sale, and Seymour has been increased by seven to 26 in the 2026-27 season; and
• Races at these meetings will be programmed to align with the available horse population, prioritising strong and competitive field sizes and supporting sustainable wagering outcomes.

Secondary Country Meetings to Mondays:

• 10 secondary country meetings, currently programmed across two Saturdays and eight Sundays through November to March, have been relocated to Mondays in 2026-27 where they can better meet customer demand and prosper as the standalone meeting on the day;
• The relocated country meetings are all non-feature events and were among the least attended and profitable meetings in their current weekend timeslots; and
• These will remain standard country TAB meetings to ensure that opportunities are maintained for country stables and a broad range of jockeys to compete.

More Wednesday & Thursday Twilights:

• Twilight racing will be expanded during the daylight savings period to ensure Victorian racing is programmed when customers want to engage;
• 16 meetings have been strategically converted from day to twilight meetings in 2026-27, while the fall of the calendar will see an additional two Wednesday twilights occur organically;
• Wednesday twilight meetings commenced in 2017 and have been scheduled annually from December to March. Four Wednesday twilights have been programmed in October and November 2026 around midweek Country Cup meetings which remain day meetings;
• Whilst the Friday night circuit commences annually in late September, Thursday night racing does not begin until late January. In the 2026-27 season, 14 Thursday twilight meetings have been programmed from October to January, including New Year’s Eve at Flemington, before the start of Thursday night racing on 28 January 2027; and
• To provide consistency for all, the following finish times will apply to twilight meetings:

October, November, March – Last race scheduled no later than 7pm
December, January, February – Last race scheduled no later than 7.30pm (as currently occurs)

Moonee Valley Racing Club Transfers

With The Valley unavailable for the entire 2026-27 season due to the continuation of its major redevelopment, 23 race meetings have been reallocated across a range of venues in Caulfield, Cranbourne, Flemington, Geelong, Pakenham, and Sandown.

The MVRC’s Group 1 meetings have been programmed as follows:

• The Ladbrokes Cox Plate meeting is at Flemington on Saturday, 24 October 2026;
• The Ladbrokes Manikato Stakes meeting moves to Caulfield and will be run on Sunday, 27 September 2026 – the day following the AFL Grand Final – and feature an exciting mix of MVRC and MRC feature races;
• The William Reid Stakes meeting remains at Caulfield for a second year on Saturday, 20 March 2027; and
• The Moir Stakes meeting will be run at Sandown on Saturday, 5 September 2026.

Caulfield Renovation

The Caulfield course proper will undergo track resurfacing following the 2026 Caulfield Cup Carnival (held between 10-17 October) and be offline until Saturday, 30 January 2027. These important works also impact the capacity of the Caulfield Heath to stage race meetings during that period.

As a result, the following Caulfield and Caulfield Heath feature meetings have been reallocated to Sandown for the 2026-27 season:

• Saturday, 14 November 2026 (C.F. Orr Stakes Day)
• Saturday, 28 November 2026 (Spring Finale Raceday)
• Saturday, 20 December 2026 (Magic Millions Raceday)
• Saturday, 23 January 2027 (Blue Diamond Previews)

To accommodate its increased summer schedule, Sandown will undergo its annual renovation throughout September and October. As a result, racing on AFL Grand Final Day (Saturday, 26 September 2026) will be conducted at Mornington.

Spring Racing Carnival

• The 2026 Spring Racing Carnival will again feature 12 consecutive weekends of Group 1 racing in Victoria from Saturday, 29 August to Saturday, 14 November; and
• Victoria’s three majors, the Sportsbet Caulfield Cup (2400m), Ladbrokes Cox Plate (2040m) and Lexus Melbourne Cup (3200m), will be run on Saturday, 17 October; Saturday, 24 October; and Tuesday, 3 November 2026 respectively.

Country Racing

• Benalla resumes racing on Saturday, 12 December 2026 after a 15-month hiatus for a full track reconstruction and will be eased back with one meeting per month through to April 2027;
• The Good Friday meeting featuring the Country Discovery has been allocated to Bendigo on 26 March 2027 and will be held during the region’s very popular Bendigo Easter Festival; and
• With ANZAC Day moving from Saturday to Sunday next year, Bendigo’s Golden Mile race meeting moves from the first Saturday in May this year to Saturday, 24 April in 2027.

Quotes attributable to RV Chief Executive, Aaron Morrison

“The 2026-27 Race Dates are the product of genuine consultation with Clubs and stakeholders, and we appreciate the collaborative approach taken.

“The Valley's continued redevelopment and Caulfield's important post-Carnival renovation have shaped the most notable changes next season. This is headlined by the move of the Ladbrokes Cox Plate to Flemington, which will maximise customer engagement for this major, and Group 1 meetings allocated to Caulfield and Sandown as we balance the workload across all of our metro tracks.

“Alongside the necessary infrastructure-driven changes, we’ve sought to ensure that the schedule better meets customer and wagering demand and grows industry returns, which underpins our ability to invest in prizemoney, tracks, infrastructure, integrity, participant support and welfare.

“Punters are engaging more with racing later in the day and later in the week, so we’ve looked to match that appetite with our available track inventory and through more flexible programming, whilst again being without our premier night track for the season.

“A number of initiatives were explored with Clubs and stakeholders within the confines of track availability which limits our flexibility to a degree next season. Following detailed data analysis, we’ve made strategic changes that we think can deliver meaningful financial benefits to the industry.

“The data strongly supports our move to add more twilight meetings, grow the number of Friday afternoons at our strongest performing country wagering venues and reallocate a group of secondary country meetings from weekends to Mondays.

“Our Wednesday metro twilights deliver 14 per cent more turnover than equivalent day meetings, while Friday afternoon meetings are increasingly popular with customers and the five country tracks we’ve identified deliver above average turnover per race for the timeslot.

“The 10 country meetings moved from weekends attracted low attendances and modest returns in their historical timeslots. Our analysis says they will perform better for the industry on Mondays where they will be the focus of the day and help to service unmet customer demand.”

To view the full schedule of 2026-27 Victorian Race Dates, click here.