Ballarat Cup Moves To Sunday
- Wednesday, 07 July 2010 22:48
Racing Victoria, in conjunction with Country Racing Victoria (CRV) and the Ballarat Turf Club (BTC), has announced an exciting new end to the Spring Racing Carnival with the Sportsbet.com.au Ballarat Cup switching to a new timeslot.
The coveted country cup, which officially marks the end of Victoria’s famous annual racing spectacular, has traditionally been run on the third Wednesday in November and commanded a public holiday in the local region.
With debate in the Ballarat community over the public holiday following State Government changes to the way they are allocated in regional areas, Racing Victoria, CRV and BTC have elected to switch the 2010 Sportsbet.com.au Ballarat Cup to Sunday, 21 November.
The move to a new Sunday timeslot circumvents the need for the Ballarat City Council to vote on its preferred event for public holiday status in the municipality, whilst providing an exciting opportunity for the Sportsbet.com.au Ballarat Cup to attract a wider audience next season on a Sunday.
BTC Chief Executive Shane Brennan said his club was pleased with the change and is looking forward to bringing down the curtain on this year’s Spring Racing Carnival in style.
“The club is most appreciative of Racing Victoria and Country Racing Victoria for facilitating the date change and the club will now work diligently with Ballarat City Council and the local community to ensure its success,” Brennan said.
“The move to a Sunday provides the club with an opportunity to not only welcome continued local support, but further encourage people in metropolitan Melbourne and other sectors of the state, who were not privy to the public holiday, to attend this great event.”
Racing Victoria’s Chief Executive Rob Hines echoed the sentiments of Brennan, whilst adding that it’s important that the local community embraces the Sunday afternoon concept.
“We believe the switch to Sunday afternoon presents the Ballarat Turf Club with a wonderful opportunity to further grow and develop the Sportsbet.com.au Ballarat Cup,” Hines said.
“The popular country cups circuit has continued to thrive on Sunday afternoons during spring and summer and with Ballarat offering such a vibrant tourism network, we see this switch as a means to growing the number of visitors who attend the event.
"It is still vitally important that the local community and Ballarat City Council continue to support this prestigious event and we encourage them to do this through their attendance and support of club initiatives and promotions.”
CRV Chief Executive Scott Whiteman further commented, “Large scale support from the local community is needed to ensure Ballarat’s ongoing success in this new timeslot.
“We have many examples where country cups have successfully transferred to Sunday meetings and in every example the success has been due to the positive reaction and support from the local community.
“Through its major racing and training operation at Ballarat, the thoroughbred racing industry has been a wonderful supporter of the wider Ballarat community by employing many locals who spend locally.”
To facilitate the switch, the Benalla meeting originally scheduled for Sunday, 21 November has been moved to Tuesday, 16 November and the Sale meeting originally scheduled for Tuesday, 16 November has been moved to Wednesday, 17 November.
The 2010 Spring Racing Carnival will run from Wednesday, 29 September to Sunday, 21 November, encapsulating 96 meetings across the state.
