NEARLY 70 per cent of respondents to an online questionnaire conducted by Manning Valley Race Club would prefer to see the Taree Cup Carnival switched from August to a month in spring.
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The poll is on the club's website. Race club chairman Greg Coleman said 68.3 per cent of respondents chose spring, with 17 per cent nominating summer. Only three per cent favoured the status quo.
As revealed in the Times last month the race club hopes to find a new date for the cup in time for the 2021 carnival. The club has sought input from the public before putting a case to Racing NSW.
Mr Coleman confirmed a spring date would be the club's preferred option.
"People are thinking about racing in spring, coming into the Melbourne Cup,'' he said.
Mr Coleman said the cup would still be run on a Sunday and it would be the intention to run the carnival over two meetings if possible.
However, the meetings wouldn't necessarily have to be on the same weekend, as is the case with the current Friday/Sunday format.
The cup would still be run over 2000 metres.
Mr Coleman pointed out previously that attracting a crowd to a race meeting in August is difficult.
He said the weather has been poor for seven of the last 10 cup day meetings.
Last August cold westerly winds lashed the race track although the crowd number had been capped to 500 because of COVID-19 protocols.
Mr Coleman doubted there would have been too many more there even if there was no limit.
He said to attract more prizemoney the club has to increase the cup carnival's 'footprint.' One way to do this is to attract more patrons to the track.
Mr Coleman admits the cup has lost some of its appeal in recent years with punters preferring to stay at home or watch from a hotel or club.
However, he said in fine warm weather the club would be able to put on a family-friendly program at the Bushland Drive track that could possibly include attractions apart from racing.
The poll will close in a fortnight.
"If anyone has any ideas on when we should run the carnival and how we can improve it, we'd love hear them,'' Mr Coleman said.
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