Once the most popular cup day meeting in the region, Corowa will instead stage a standalone twilight meeting on Monday starting at 3.10pm.

Racing NSW instigated the move late last year and it has been embraced by the club, according to secretary-manager Sheridan Kay.

“We were given the option to change our Melbourne Cup day race meeting from a non-TAB meeting on Tuesday to a TAB meeting on Melbourne Cup eve and we elected to do that after some consideration,” she said.

At its peak, cup day races at Corowa attracted crowds of more than 5000 people before the farcical events of 2009 when Albury and Wodonga raced for the first time on the first Tuesday in November in addition to Wagga and Wangaratta.

Albury is the only meeting in the Southern District Racing Association on Tuesday with only 27 final acceptors for its five-race non-TAB meeting.

Wangaratta has a six-race meeting with 55 final acceptors.

Corowa has trumped both with 63 for a seven-race meeting albeit with TAB status and each race carrying $20,000 in prizemoney.

Wagga won’t be racing on cup day this year with a meeting held on Friday.

Corowa has been the beneficiary of five transferred meetings in the 2016-17 racing season with the majority being from Albury where a major track upgrade took longer than expected.

The extra meetings have helped Corowa return a stronger financial result last financial year.

Ms Kay said the switch to Monday when many Victorians travelled to the area for a long weekend had the potential to be a winner for the club from a crowd and financial perspective.

“We’ve had quite a lot of positive feedback to the move,” she said.

“Because it is a TAB twilight meeting our first race is not until 3.10pm and last one is at 6.45pm.

“It will give people the opportunity, especially if they are having a four-day long weekend, to come down and enjoy the races.

“Being such a tourist town there are a lot of people from Melbourne who come to Corowa and hopefully it will attract some interest for the visitors.”