The merit of twilight race meetings outside the 100 kilometre radius of Melbourne has to be questioned.

Whether there is any growth in wagering that warrants having twilight meetings at far off destinations such as Swan Hill today has never been answered.

Even Bendigo with its last race a couple of months ago at 7.05pm was ridiculous but it is even worse at Swan Hill with the last race at 7.30pm.

Some horses will not leave the course much before 8pm travelling for most of the night particularly those from Ballarat they won’t arrived home until well after midnight.

If there is any financial benefit to the race clubs to conduct twilight race meetings the trainers and jockeys should be directly compensated by the race clubs rather than running to Racing Victoria with their hand out.