More than 6,000 people from across Victoria braved the elements to attend the Ballarat Cup at the weekend.
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While the day began with heavy rains and gusty winds that was not a deterrent for patrons and to their delight the weather began to improve after the first few races.
Ballarat Turf Club chief executive Belinda Glass said she was "pretty pleased" with this turnout taking into consideration the challenges their organisation faced in the lead up to and on the day.
"The weather forecast was not very kind and I think we were all hopeful that maybe the rain would hold off until after the last race but we had showers before even the first race nonetheless, we were pretty pleased with the result," Ms Glass said.
"We had good pre sales, marquee packages were really good and those people all turned up so that's really good especially taking into account that conditions weren't fabulous in the morning."
She said it was an added bonus to see a sense of liveliness return back to the racecourse after several years of cancelled events.
"We do feel pretty lucky even though we were sort of dealt a bit of a rough hand with the weather so many clubs haven't been able to actually run their feature events. Avoca was cancelled, Yarra Valley is in trouble and picnic race meetings have cancelled six of their race meetings this season," Ms Glass said.
"So to see people's enthusiasm to be back at the track enjoying the cup atmosphere is really positive for us."
She said it was also validating for those in Ballarat to have such a diverse range of participants in the racing mix.
"I think the quality of the fields was probably a highlight for us from a club perspective. Not only did we have good fields, but they were really strong fields as well as in the quality of horses that were racing," Ms Glass said.
"We had good local representation which is also really good."
Despite patron numbers being below pre-pandemic levels, Ms Glass was hopeful this year's cup is a boon for future years to come.
"In 2019 with good conditions we had just over 9,000 people and though Saturday was very wet on foot through the marquees the mood was still very good and hopefully we see that continue," she said.
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Malvika Hemanth
Malvika has a strong interest in covering stories on welfare, cost of living pressures and the arts. She works on the unceded lands of the Wadawurrung people and pays her respect to elders past, present and emerging.
Malvika has a strong interest in covering stories on welfare, cost of living pressures and the arts. She works on the unceded lands of the Wadawurrung people and pays her respect to elders past, present and emerging.
