As revealed in The Examiner last month, betting turnover on the meetings is so bad that Tasracing has no choice but to end the experiment before it does any further damage.

Industry insiders believe harness racing has already lost a significant six-figure amount in revenue.

The Friday night timeslot itself is not the problem – it’s the fact that most of the meetings are getting only Sky 2 coverage.

When the races are on Sky 2, turnover drops at least 30 per cent and sometimes considerably more.

A meeting on Friday attended by representatives of Tasracing, the clubs and other industry bodies was told that harness racing would return to Sunday nights, with Sky 1 coverage, as soon as possible.

However, it won’t be immediately.

Sky Channel has allocated the slot to other meetings, mainly interstate greyhounds, so Tasmanian harness racing will have to wait.

The Launceston Pacing Club has been advised that the Sunday night slot won’t become available until January 1.

Under the original calendar for the 2018-19 season, the LPC was allocated 27 Friday night meetings.

The club was given only seven Sunday night dates, with its Easter Cup meeting on a Saturday night.

Also coming out of Friday’s meeting was news that the minimum field size for two-year-old and trotters’ races will be reduced to four.

When trotting was reintroduced in July it was stipulated that races would only go ahead with five or more runners.

Mark Yole’s flying start to the new season has given him the best strike-rate of any of the leading drivers in Australia.

Yole, the 2015-16 premiership winner, has had nine winners from only 22 drives at a strike-rate of 41 per cent.

The premiership leaders in the other states are Chris Alford (strike-rate 34 per cent), Amanda Turnbull (37 per cent), Nathan Dawson (25 per cent), Danielle Hill (29 per cent) and Gary Hall (32 per cent).