The Victorian jumps racing program for 2020 has been released, with the same number of races scheduled as the previous season.

A total of 61 jumps races are scheduled in Victoria – 39 hurdles races and 22 steeplechases – with prize money of more than $3.8 million.

Racing Victoria said the program had been developed in consultation with the Australian Jumps Racing Association, Thoroughbred Racing South Australia and the participating race clubs and remained “very similar” to the 2019 program.

Jumps racing will kick off at Warrnambool on March 12, one of six meetings featuring jumps races at the venue for the year, highlighted by the three-day May carnival.

The season will again end with the Grand National Steeplechase meeting at Ballarat on Sunday, August 23.

Sale, which did not host a jumps meeting in 2019, will have three jumps races on its May 12 program while a steeplechase at Hamilton has been brought forward a week from early April to late March to avoid a clash with the revamped Oakbank carnival in South Australia.