Mr Coleman forecast in Friday’s Times that the turnout for Sunday’s cup would be the biggest in five years.

However, cold weather put paid to those hopes, even though under the circumstances Mr Coleman said the crowd figures were exellent.

“The crowd was up on last year – our bar takings were an improvement on last year and our TAB turnover will be up slightly,’’ Mr Coleman said.

“But unfortunately we can’t control the weather.’’

“I’m sure if we’d had the weather from the previous Sunday we’d have doubled the crowd on cup day,’’ Mr Coleman said.

“Family groups would have been turned off by the cold snap.’’

Mr Coleman said the carnival continues to attract people from outside the area to Taree.

“There were people there from Wagga, Parkes and Sydney. The group from Wagga were hopping on a coach on Monday and heading to Grafton for the races there,’’ he said.

Mr Coleman believes cup day is becoming increasingly popular in the Newcastle area and he said this is potentially a growth market for the club. He suggested the race club may increase its cup carnival marketing in Newcastle.

Mr Coleman pointed to figures that show how beneficial the Grafton Cup Carnival held in July is to that area. He remains confident the Taree carnival can be equally as strong for Taree’s economy. For this reason he said the club is keen to continue the association with the Manning River Times regarding the Crazy Day promotion.

Mr Coleman said entertainment provided in the Winning Post Function Centre after the last race also proved popular with patrons. He said this will now become a feature of Melbourne Cup day meeting – the next major event to be conducted by the club at Bushland Drive.

The cup was won by the Wyong-trained Pirate Ben, a $25 outsider. This made it a feature double for the Central Coast after Gosford galloper Randiki took out the Hopkins-Livermore Cup on Friday.