Only, there remain so many unknown factors affecting numbers for the Ballarat Cup one week on.

What has for so long been a mid-November fixture was moved to the second weekend in December from a reshuffle made in February.

Make no mistake - the horse fields for the latest Ballarat Cup edition were good quality with top jockeys for this metropolitan-standard meet. Even being so late after the spring carnival.

The time of year, December, sounds perfect as a way to launch into summer festivities with Christmas parties and peak bucks outings.

Who could forget the rockstar-like arrival of a groom-to-be and his bucks party in a helicopter convoy landing inside the Dowling Forest track in 2016?

This has been the place where celebrities have judged fashion with a roll call featuring Rebecca Judd in her Twigley days, Lauren Phillips and Kris Smith.

But, a soaking rain on race day aside, pre-sales had been down.

The big crowds are typically driven by the 20 to 30-somethings crowd keen to dress up and party with friends trackside and in marquees boasting nightclub-like vibes.

Money could have played a factor. So too, could have been the late Racing Victoria shuffle.

Major music festival Spilt Milk, this year headlined by American rapper Post Malone, drew about 40,000 revellers to Victoria Park one week before the Cup. Tickets were sold out in early July.

Spilt Milk itself was a big spend for food, alcohol, transport and festival fashion, the latter including hairstyling and make-up artistry.

Cup weekend also doubled up with Meredith Music Festival, a time-honoured tradition dating back decades.

And Ballarat people love a good tradition.

This factor itself could have been greatly underestimated from Racing Victoria in designing its calendar.

We got used to getting Cup-ready in November.

It feels like a lot of events have been slower to rebuild back to pre-pandemic hype and crowds - a little like our routines shifted and have not quite got back into full-gear.

Maybe a December meet in what has always been a hectic time of the year will take a little longer for us to make that adjustment.

About 3600 racegoers were out for the 2023 Ballarat Cup, below conservative estimates and undoubtedly not helped by the weather.

Whether Racing Victoria will move Ballarat Cup back to November will remain an unknown until deep into 2024. If not November, then we need a time and boost to build a December marquee meet.

Times are tough but Ballarat Cup has long had so much to offer a wide variety of social sets.

Maybe we need to rediscover and reinvigorate our love for a day out by the track and introduce a whole new generation to what has been such a popular fixture.

To do this, we need assurance the Cup is given the respect we deserve in whatever happens galloping forward.