MELBOURNE Cup day races will no longer be a feature on the Murrumbidgee Turf Club (MTC) calendar.
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MTC will part with tradition this year and no longer hold a race meeting on Melbourne Cup day.
The club has chosen to switch dates and will hold a full TAB meeting on Friday October 28 instead.
MTC chief executive Scott Sanbrook explained that the number of race meetings on Cup day had made it an increasingly difficult task.
“It is a big break in tradition and in a way it’s going to be tinged with sadness,” Sanbrook said.
“But moving the date was too good of an opportunity to miss.”
Sanbrook explained that MTC will offer $160,000 in prizemoney on the new date, as opposed to the $32,500 that would have been offer on Melbourne Cup day.
MTC will also introduce a prelude to Gundagai’s Snake Gully Cup on the new race day.
With 16 race meetings in NSW and ACT alone on Melbourne Cup day, MTC could only attract 24 horses and six jockeys to last year’s meeting.
Sanbrook conceded the crowded schedule was a major factor in the decision.
“It’s so hard to attract horses and jockeys on Melbourne Cup day, where so much is going on in the district, and also southern NSW,” he said.
The move will not have a negative financial impact on MTC.
The club plans to hold an auditorium ‘phantom’ race meeting on the day.
Crowd numbers have dwindled in recent years but it still attracted more than 1000 racegoers last year.
