Racing Victoria has transferred three race meetings from Sportsbet Ballarat to give the track sufficient time to recover from Grand National Steeplechase Day in August.

The rescheduling means the $50,000 Gold Nugget Handicap,1600m, which was to have been run on Sunday, will now be run at Caulfield on Saturday.

With Sunday’s BTC meeting transferred to Pakenham synthetic, Racing Victoria originally moved the Gold Nugget to Geelong on Friday to ensure it was run on turf. 

However, with Geelong switched to its synthetic track, a second change was made.

The Ballarat program planned for Wednesday, September 28, is now at Mornington, while Warrnambool picks up the Wednesday, October 5 meeting.

RV infrastructure executive general manager Jamie McGuinness said the transfers would give the track enough time to recover for meetings leading up to the Ballarat Cup on Saturday, November 19.

Racing is scheduled to return to Ballarat on Tuesday, October 18.

BTC chief executive Lachlan McKenzie said while the track had improved notably since the Grand National Steeplechase meeting, the surface would benefit greatly from a break.

“The compaction issues with our home straight, in conjunction with an extremely wet winter period though, have resulted in a delayed recovery,” he said.

“The track was over sown immediately after the Grand National, and we have an abundance of new turf growing throughout the sections where the cover had previously been sparse.

“With spring comes a return of warmer weather, which will no doubt assist the track’s regeneration in the lead up to our standalone Cup meeting,” he said.

Ballarat will look to run additional meetings later in the season.

PRINCE of Penzance will carry 56.5kg in his bid to secure back-to-back Melbourne Cups.

The Darren Weir-trained stayer is on the second tier of weights for the $6.2m event - an increase of 3.5kg on  his win last year.

seven-year-old has had two starts this preparation as he builds towards the Melbourne Cup.

Prince of Penzance worked home strongly to come from near the back of the field at th 400m mark to finish sixth in the group 1 Makybe Diva Stakes, 1600m, at Flemington on Saturday.

Overseas-trained Order of St George and Protectionist, which own the Cup in 2014, share top weight of 58kg.