ALBURY Council has backed the half-day holiday for the Gold Cup race meeting for a further two years.
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The support is used as justification by the NSW government to declare a public holiday for the event which will be held on March 23 next year with the 2019 date tentatively set for March 22.
This year’s event was still able to go ahead despite a major track upgrade not being completed and heavy rain falling in the days beforehand.
The track was shut again to finish off drainage works on the back section with the club forced to forego another meeting scheduled for September 15.
Racing NSW confirmed this week the mid-September meeting will be switched to Corowa.
In addition to council support, further information has to be sought from businesses on their ongoing support of the event and benefits to the community in terms of employment and business activity highlighted.
A stakeholder engagement plan has commenced.
The Gold Cup support was backed unanimously by council.
But Cr Darren Cameron said it wasn’t always the case.
He recalled the opposition to introducing the half-day holiday in the mid-1990s, in particular from conservative members of council and chamber of commerce.
“They predicted it would be the ruination of Albury and businesses of Albury would go broke, there would be a collapse in the economy and the sky would fall in,” he said.
“It gives me a delicious, ironic satisfaction to observe that the chamber of commerce endorses the event and many, many businesses sponsor marquees and tents.
“The people of Albury have generally come to love it for the success it is.”
He said the Gold Cup was indebted to former councillors Frank Millen and Garry Purtell for their support at the time.
Albury Racing Club spends more than $470,000 each year staging and promoting the event with an estimated 450 contractors and staff working on its delivery.
The two-day Albury Gold Cup carnival this year attracted an estimated 15,500 people.
