TRAINER David O’Prey has thrown his support behind the Wodonga Turf Club’s bid to have a public holiday for its annual cup meeting.
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The club is lobbying for a day off for its premier meeting in lieu of the Melbourne Cup public holiday.
If successful the meeting could be switched to a Friday in either late November or early December instead of the current Sunday.
Other Victorian regional centres — Bendigo, Geelong, Warrnambool and Kyneton — have already given up the Melbourne Cup holiday to have a day off for their city’s cup meeting.
“I’ve been to Bendigo on cup day and you can’t move and Wodonga should be the same,” O’Prey said.
“Locally, people haven’t really embraced Sunday racing and the excuse I keep hearing is that most people have Sunday as their designated family day and do things with the family.
“But if you change the day and have the public holiday people won’t be able to use that as an excuse.
“It is a disgrace how so few of the locals support the Wodonga Cup.
“It’s like anything, if you don’t support it — it won’t be there.”
