The club has a survey on its website and Facebook page where people are asked to indicate the preferred season to hold the carnival. Race club chairman Greg Coleman said the board is looking at all options for the 2021 carnival but is determined to move from August. Those who complete the survey will also be in line to win two passes to the club's meeting to be run on Melbourne Cup day.

Mr Coleman said the club remains open to all suggestions, but he added the board aims to lift the profile of the cup carnival. He said the community will have a major say in the club's final decision.

Changing the month of the cup carnival has been on the club's agenda for some time. However, with a new board in place, Mr Coleman said now is the time to start serious negotiations with Racing NSW, the final arbiter on the decision.

"Racing NSW is open to finding solutions to the problems we've highlighted over the past few years regarding our carnival,'' Mr Coleman assured

"We want some idea from the community on the time of year they would attend the Taree Cup. We know winter certainly isn't desirable.''

Mr Coleman explained that one of the factors determining prizemoney for a cup carnival is the number of patrons in attendance on cup day.

"The weather has been unfavourable for seven of our last 10 cup day meetings,'' he added.

Mr Coleman said there are other concerns.

"In late August we clash with the semi-finals of the winter sporting codes and that's always going to impact on our attendances,'' he explained.

"Track condition is another factor. We race on slow and heavy tracks at that time of the year and we get a lot of wear on our track at the back end of winter.''

The Taree Cup Carnival was once one of the major events on the area's sporting calendar.

While still prominent Mr Coleman accepts that the carnival has lost some of its gloss.

"We know that there are other ways now for people to watch racing - whether it be from the comfort of home or at a pub or a club,'' he said.

"But the carnival has an economic benefit for the town and we have an excellent community asset there at the Bushland Drive track.''

Mr Coleman pointed out there have been changes to the format of the cup carnival in the past.

"Thirty five years ago we changed from running the cup on a Wednesday to a Friday,'' he said.

From there the cup day switched from Friday to Sunday.

Mr Coleman said the cup will still be on a Sunday and that's "not negotiable."

However, he said the Hopkins Livermore Cup would still be run in August. This is the feature race on the opening day of the current cup carnival program.

"We'll still conduct 22 meetings a year. We'll be looking to move the Sunday cup meeting away from August to what the community believes is a better time of the year, depending on agreement with Racing NSW.

"Another thing to consider is the horse pool - having a pool of horses capable of running 2000 metres - the Taree Cup distance.

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Mr Coleman added the club would also look at running an event in conjunction with cup day to attract non-racing people. He noted that a food fair held at the track last year drew a crowd of around 1500.

"It was an unbelievable response,'' he said.

"We'll consider anything that in fine weather would attract people to the track.''

Mr Coleman added that betting turnover increased for this year's cup day and also the cup carnival, so the decision to move the carnival isn't based on financial concerns.

"We want to get more spectators at our cup day,'' he said.

"It's as simple as that. And we know racing in winter makes that difficult.''

Mr Coleman said that after considering community input the club will put a proposal to Racing NSW.

He's confident next year's cup carnival won't be in August.