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FWC on Sport Nation guidePfitzner: The racing industry needs to take a break in July
Connor Scanlon • July 9th, 2026 5:35 pm
The July period of racing is often viewed as the worst month by many pundits across Australia due to the lack of high-level races and horses running around, accompanied by wet weather resulting in a higher percentage of heavy tracks.
SENTrack form analyst Miles Pfitzner has proposed a bold idea, similar to how Hong Kong runs their racing programme, to give the industry a break during the month of July.
Pfitzner explained that by taking the month of July off, this would allow the tracks to recover, along with the staff, data experts and participants.
“I think they should have more (than two weeks off in July),” Pfitzner stated on SENTrack’s Layback.
“Tracks recover, everything gets a freshen up; staff, participants.
“I know that people will say, ‘Oh, some jockeys make more of their living in the winter, oh, the horses still need a run, oh, but there’s nothing like racing on race day.’
“Well, you know what, you can still have jumpouts, you can still have trials. They do it in Hong Kong and it works. They have a season on and a season off.
“If you've got horses that are coming up for the Aurie’s Star and Memsie Stakes, you can still be working those horses, that's fine, but from a racing and participant aspect (they need a break).”
Pfitzner continued by exclaiming that the last few weeks of racing haven’t been up to standard, and it is simply too much at this time of year.
“I mean, what good is the last three to four weeks of these meetings?” questioned Pfitzner.
“We've got stacks of racing here in Victoria, almost too much at this time of year. There was a Ballarat meeting there the other day, there was just a stack of under benchmark 52 races.
“Too much!”
Fellow racing analyst Tom Haylock played devil’s advocate to Pfitzner’s proposal, stating that it would cost owners more, plus trainers wouldn’t be able to get a break anyway.
Pfitzner responded to that by explaining that the positives will outweigh the negatives, suggesting the full month of July off.
Haylock: “Obviously it probably costs owners because their horses can't run.”
“For trainers it'd be hard to have a break because the horses still need to go around, and you still need to plan.”
Pfitzner: “But they can. They could have stable foreman that are taking care of work.
“For the participants, tracks, data; give people some time to freshen some things up.
“I'd nearly say end at June 30 and start it again 1st of August.”
Watch Pfitzner's proposal below:
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