A RECORD crowd at the Wodonga Gold Cup has raised the hope of more races and bigger prizemoney next year.
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Almost 5000 watched Brian Cox win his 11th cup, the first on a public holiday, on Friday.
The 4773 was more than double last year’s crowd.
Wodonga and District Turf Club general manager Tom O’Connor said the club would lobby Racing Victoria to help improve cup day.
Friday’s feature was worth $48,000 to the winner, the equivalent of first prize for each race at Moonee Valley and Rosehill on the following day.
“We have the public holiday locked in for three years and so the first box we had to tick was proving we could draw a crowd,” O’Connor said.
“There were some big numbers in the marquees.
“But it was the walk-ups that were the big unknown and that certainly exceeded our expectations.
“Having ticked the first box we can go back to Racing Victoria and look to get more races on cup day.
“We’ll also look at increasing the prizemoney.”
But O’Connor admitted the big crowd highlighted some failings.
Intermittent power outages, a lack of bottled water and marquees that limited the view of the home straight from the grandstand were among the concerns.
“The biggest glitch was power — we have never had a crowd that size to fully test the system,” O’Connor said.
“But we have already spoken with electricians and it won’t be too difficult to fix.
“And the landscape of the track is about to undergo a significant change with the house near the entry to the course to be demolished by Christmas.
“That will give us more room for marquees.”
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