However, numbers will be limited to 300, including owners.

The club is encouraging those wanting to attend to pre-purchase tickets.

"There's no guarantee of tickets still being available at the gate if capacity is reached, so don't take a chance," said the BTC said.

This is the second race meeting at Sportsbet Ballarat since the turf track underwent an annual renovation after November's Ballarat Cup.

The track has been rated a good4, with the rail out two metres from 1600m to 800m, and out 4m for the rest of the circuit.

The eight-race program features the $75,000 Sportsbet Watch Racing Live Benchmark78, 1600m - restricted to Victoria country-based trainers.

Country cup specialists Barry The Baptist and Patch Adams feature in the capacity field.

Trained by Paul Jones at Stawell, Barry The Baptist has contested 13 country cups since mid-2018 - winning the Stawell and Apsley Cups, and being placed in another six.

His latest outing when well back at Caulfield is best forgotten, with the seven-year-old looking better suited in this company.

Patch Adams from the Aaron Purcell yard at Warrnambool ran in his first country cup more than four years ago and has gone on to compete in 31.

He won the Great Western Cup two starts ago and this is a step up in class on that, but the veteran can never be dismissed.

Skelm, trained by Terry Kelly at Coghills Creek, has the top weight of 60kg and the services of leading jockey John Allen.

Kelly early last year had his eyes on a Melbourne Cup start for Skelm, but his spring campaign was shortlived and this is just his second race start since September.

He is a classy type at his best and this time last year had some impressive city form, including back-to-back wins at Sandown Hillside and Caulfield, and two top three finishes at Flemington.

Skelm's second-up record indicates he is likely to need more racing before peaking. but does have class on his side.

Ballarat's Henry Dwyer has group 2-winning mare La Falaise engaged.

She show plenty of promise as a youngster, winning the $100,000 Elvstroem as a two-year-old at Swan Hill and the group 2 Antler Luggage Fillies Classic for three-year-olds at Moonee Valley in October 2019.

She has not won since, but was fourth in the Australasian Oaks in Adelaide in May.

This is her first run since New Year's Day and second outing since her South Australian camapign in May last year.

The first race on Sunday is at 1.20pm.