There will be no race meeting on the Australia Day holiday in Victoria with extreme hot weather forcing the postponement of the Geelong meeting.

Monday’s meeting has been delayed 24 hours and will run in conjunction with the Horsham meeting on Tuesday.

The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting temperatures at Geelong to reach 42 degrees at 2pm on Tuesday and staying in that range through until 5pm.

Racing Victoria said the decision to delay the meeting was taken after consultation with other stakeholder groups and in consideration of the welfare of horses and participants.

The postponement has resulted in the trials scheduled for Geelong on Tuesday, featuring multiple Group 1 winner Mr Brightside, to also be delayed by 24 hours.

They will now be run on Wednesday morning before the twilight meeting at Sandown later that day.