Maitland's group 3 Inter City Pace series has been postponed until March-April in the hope of maintaining prizemoney and crowds in the wake of COVID-19.
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The series has traditionally been held in late December and early January but the Maitland Harness Racing Club, in consultation with Harness Racing NSW, have changed the schedule because of COVID restrictions on crowds and potential short-term drops in prizemoney due to the pandemic's impact.
The December 20 and 27 race dates set aside for the heats and final have been transferred to Newcastle, which will hold standard meetings. A swap of race dates, likely in late March and early April, will allow Maitland to run their feature programs.
MHRC honorary secretary Wayne Smith said an internal assessment of the Maitland Paceway indicated a maximum of only 500 people would be allowed at each meeting under COVID restrictions. It is hoped restrictions will ease before the new timeslots, allowing a strong attendance.
The series' conditions have also changed. The races were restricted to Australian-bred pacers in recent years but imports will again be allowed to compete. However, they must be trained in NSW for at least 28 days before the close of nominations. They must also have had their last four starts in NSW, unless trained in the state for the past 12 months. The grading system of the series may also change.