RACING Wodonga has strengthened the case for a future long-term commitment for its Gold Cup meeting after being crowned country racing’s event of the year.
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The club beat off 10 other rivals to take out the coveted award for its cup meeting which for the second successive year was held on a Friday in late November with a public holiday in lieu of Melbourne Cup.
In further success, past president and life member, Terry Maher, won the service to country racing award.
Both awards were presented at a function at Ballarat on Saturday night.
The other 10 finalists in the event of the year including Benalla Racing Club for its cup meeting held last year on the AFL grand final eve public holiday.
The Wodonga Cup was previously held on a Sunday before the switch to a Sunday in 2014.
Racing Wodonga general manager Tom O’Connor said the two awards were fantastic recognition.
“It is a massive tick of approval to be acknowledged at that level within the racing industry,” he said.
“The club beat 10 other clubs across regional Victoria with significant events in their own rights.”
The cup attendance climbed from 4772 people in the first year of the change to 6131.
The figures were well up on the 2360 people who attended the Sunday cup meeting in 2013.
But Wodonga Council remains lukewarm in its support for the award-winning event.
Earlier this year, council staff recommended the public holiday be scrapped in 2017 in favour of the Melbourne Cup holiday.
But councillors voted 5-1 to extend support for the public holiday for two more years to 2018 with mayor Anna Speedie opposing the move.
“The award demonstrates the strength of the event and reinforces the decision to extend the holiday by a further two years,” O’Connor said.
“It has become Wodonga’s premier social occasion with scope to grow even further.”
The Maher family is Wodonga racing royalty with Terry’s father, the late Jack Maher, an icon of the club.
Terry first joined the committee of Wodonga and District Turf Club in 1965 as a 17-year-old trainer when his father was president.
After returning from National Service, which included a stint in Vietnam in the late 1960s, Maher trained the 1976 Corowa Cup winner, Perspective Lad and also won a race at Flemington with 100/1 bolter, Golden Aura.
In 1984, Maher began an unbroken 32-year stint on the club committee which included two stints as president.
His brother Peter is one of Wodonga’s leading trainers.
The Jack Maher Classic for two-year-olds is one of the club’s feature races each year.
