Following the Premier’s announcement this morning that the NSW Government has extended the lockdown until midnight on July 16, Greyhound Racing NSW (GRNSW) will also continue with its zoning regulations.
The two zones that remain in place are as follows: those who remain in locked down regions of the Greater Sydney area, the Blue Mountains, the Central Coast and Wollongong, are deemed to be in Zone 1 and can race only at the venues inside that zone: Wentworth Park, Dapto, Bulli, Richmond and Gosford. Those who are located outside the locked down region, are considered in Zone 2, and those participants can race at all tracks outside the locked down region.
Again, while the NSW Government and NSW Health are hopeful that the lock down will conclude at midnight on July 16, just as GRNSW did this week in order to prevent potential problems with nominations should the lockdown be extended, GRNSW has decided that these zones will effectively remain in place for nomination purposes, through until, and including, the race meetings drawn for Monday, July 19 at Bathurst, Maitland and Nowra.
As GRNSW has done over the first two weeks of the lockdown, to offset the inability of participants in Zone 2 to enter Zone 1 and race for city prizemoney at Wentworth Park, a number of tracks in Zone 2 will race for city prizemoney next week.
Full city prizemoney (Saturday Wentworth Park stakes) will be offered for race meeting at Dubbo on Saturday, July 17 and Nowra on Monday, July 19 for races over 500m (excluding maidens), and also for the meeting at Maitland on Monday, July 19 for races over 450m (excluding maidens).
For the meetings at Gunnedah on Thursday, July 15 and Wagga Wagga on Friday, July 16, Wednesday Wentworth Park prizemoney levels will be available for races over 500m (excluding maidens).
No other changes will be made to the current racing schedule.
GRNSW will update the race programming on the website for the upcoming week, in the next 24 hours.
All NSW Health rules, restrictions and strict compliance requirements that are currently in place across the locked down area will apply at race meetings in Zone 1, including temperature testing, and the wearing of masks is mandatory at all venues.
At Zone 2 venues all COVID-19 precautions must be taken including the mandatory wearing of face masks, social distancing and abiding by the 1 x 4 square metre rule.
We urge everyone to continue to take the proper precautions when attending race meetings, and if anyone has any cold or flu symptoms, they need to get tested immediately and self-isolate until they have a negative result, and do not attend any track if you are unwell.
GRNSW reiterates that these new zoning measures are for participants and essential workers only and have been established under the NSW Government’s stay-at-home restriction rules for work travel. All tracks as mentioned in Zone 1 are not open to the public.
