Ballarat Turf Club is determined to make its new summer Cup Day as big as ever.
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Racing Victoria has pushed the listed Sportsbet Ballarat Cup back two weeks to Saturday, December 9, this year as part of an overhaul of the November racing calendar to round out the Victorian spring carnival.
The Cranbourne Cup has also been moved back a week to Saturday, November 25, which was originally occupied by Ballarat, and the Pakenham Cup, which has lost its spot to Ballarat, is yet to be allocated a new date.
The major changes come despite a vigorous campaign by Ballarat Turf Club to continue to have its Cup Day on the third Saturday after the Melbourne Cup.
BTC chief executive officer Belinda Glass said the club was not happy with the outcome.
"We're not hiding our disappointment about losing our spring date.
"We always advocated that we had established a strong event in attendance, turnover and quality of fields."
Glass said unfortunately for Ballarat, Racing Victoria had a strong belief that the end of November needed a stronger metropolitan and group racing focus.
"It's my understanding Racing Victoria believed this was what the racing public wanted.
"The change has been made and as a club we have to accept it and move on," she said.
The BTC executive met on Wednesday, just hours after the restructure was announced, to discuss the impact of the changes ahead of further talks at a committee level on Monday.
Glass said there was a lot of work ahead to establish the new summer time slot for Cup Day.
"It's a big challenge. It feels like we're starting from scratch."
She said Cup Day had been a big event on the Ballarat events calendar and Racing Victoria calendar in the spring and the change meant re-educating the general and racing communities.
Glass said the club would also engage with the many partners involved in making the meeting the success it had been.
"We want to ensure we attract the similarly strong fields and the same type of attendances we've been able to build up."
She said being closer to Christmas, the club would have an opportunity to further target the end of year party market to complement the strong corporate and social base already in place.
The Ballarat Cup date shift is among changes made to provide a new-look end to the spring carnival.
One of the major metropolitan changes is introducing a Melbourne Racing Club group 1 raceday at Caulfield the Saturday after the Melbourne Cup Carnival - November 18 this year.
This will include the group 1 Thousand Guineas, which moves from the Caulfield Cup Carnival in October; group 1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes, which moves from September; and a new $1 million Country Cups Final.
This meeting pushes the Cranbourne Cup day back a week to the spot previously held by the Ballarat Cup.
Ballarat's feature meeting has been moved back an extra week owing to the Zipping Classic meeting at Caulfield retaining its spot on December 2.
RV chief executive Andrew Jones said the Victorian Spring Racing Carnival was exceptional on any measure.
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"We are evolving from a position of strength.
"Our clear view is that we can grow racing's audience by enhancing our schedule in November.
"This view is shared by the majority of those we consulted. There was terrific discussion and debate about the best way to do so," he said.
"We will continue to innovate our schedule across the year. Our goals are always to provide more entertainment for fans and punters, and to increase returns to owners, trainers and jockeys.
"I want to thank all who engaged with our review process, particularly the Clubs, trainers and owners.
We are united in our goal to make Victoria's Spring Racing Carnival the best it can be."
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