The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic will see the Wagga Gold Cup carnival run without crowds for the first time in the event's history, with the gates closed to the general public.

Prizemoney for the Cup and Town Plate has been slashed by 20 per cent, with the remaining 14 supporting races cut by 10 per cent.

But as he prepares for a carnival like no other at Wagga before, Harrison is focusing on what the MTC is able to deliver.

"I suppose the main emphasis is on prizemoney being put back into the industry," Harrison said.

"Horse racing is all about owners and trainers. Without prizemoney, you don't have owners. I think the main thing is that prizemoney's still there and participation is still there."

The MTC has been granted permission to perform presentations after each race over the two days and that will be streamed onto the club's Facebook page.

It is little things like that, Harrison hopes can help deliver the Cup carnival to those not in attendance.

"Prelude day was a good example, I was there all day...and the trainers were half hyped up but nobody was in that Cup mood, I suppose you would call it," he said.

"And that's what we've tried to do for Thursday and Friday. We've been granted permission by the stewards to do presentations to the trainer that will be streamed. That's just trying to make everybody feel apart of something that they would be at normally."

The club is under no illusions that the cost of not having 10,000 racegoers through the turnstiles will hit them hard.

But Harrison says the club is in a strong enough position to come out the other side.

"It's going to leave a very big hole in the budget at the end of the year but we've got no control over that," he said.

"We haven't sat down and worked out how much it's going to cost us, we can't, it's all hypothetical, but at the end of the day there's not going to be as much money in the kitty as there was after the carnival last year.

"The only thing I can say there is the club is in a good financial position and we can only build on things once we're allowed to have crowds back."

The club hopes crowds will be allowed back at the races by the annual Aggies day in September.

The other positive for the MTC is that betting turnover, during the early part of the coronavirus lockout, has been strong.

"Our turnover on Prelude day was in excess of last year's turnover, it was up. Murrumbidgee Turf Club has pretty well bucked the trend as far as the state turnover goes," Harrison said.

"Whatever money we make out of the turnover will hopefully cover our costs for the day, and we can put the meeting on. The extra prizemoney that the MTC put into it out of our own pocket...we're still doing that for it to go to the industry and help every trainer out that is in Wagga on Thursday and Friday."

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