Racing Victoria and Country Racing Victoria are remaining tight lipped on a possible change of date for the Ballarat Cup this year.
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The Ballarat Cup meeting is facing the likelihood of being rescheduled as momentum builds to move the Melbourne Racing Club's Caulfield Cup Carnival to late November.
The Caulfield Cup is traditionally run in October early in the Melbourne Spring Carnival, with the Ballarat Cup the last feature day on the spring - a timeslot the Ballarat Turf Club is keen to retain.
The BTC has made a submission to CRV expressing its desire to retain the planned cup day date of Saturday, November 21.
With the decision on any changes to spring racing dates expected to be announced by RV early next month, Racing Victoria and Country Racing Victoria informed The Courier they would not be making ongoing comments during the decision-making process.
Racing Victoria corporate communications general manager Shaun Kelly said as stated on Wednesday, RV was not going to provide ongoing commentary on this matter.
He said for the purposes of clarity though, Country Racing Victoria was part of the industry working group considering the spring racing carnival dates and programming, and were representing the views of country clubs, including the Ballarat Turf Club, as part of the process.
"RV, both directly and through CRV's participation, are well aware of the wishes of individual country clubs and the nuances of each event which will form part of our considerations.
"The Ballarat Cup meeting has and will continue to be an important one on the Victorian racing calendar.
"We will be happy to comment on it in more detail once decisions on the 2020 Spring Racing Carnival have been made," Kelly said.
Country Racing Victoria chief executive officer Scott Whiteman, in reply to an approach by The Courier, said the CRV was not going to provide ongoing commentary on this matter as it and the industry considered scenarios.
"We certainly will be discussing the matter with the Ballarat Turf Club.
"The Ballarat Cup meeting has and will continue to be an important one on the Victorian racing calendar.
"We will be happy to comment on it in more detail once decisions on the 2020 Spring Racing Carnival have been made," Whiteman said.
The MRC proposal includes running the Caulfield Cup Carnival on November 21-28, with the Caulfield Cup on the second Saturday.
RV chief executive officer Giles Thompson told RSN radio on Thursday that it would be another 10 days before a position was finalised.
Any decision on spring prizemoney changes will be announced in early July.
