A crowd of around 500 was 1000 below predictions after the club was hopeful of attracting similar numbers that attended its two recent festive meetings.

Club chief Steve Hetherton said the forecast high of 37 degrees was the major reason behind the shortfall.

"The crowd is down on what we expected," Hetherton said.

"Given how hot it is and there is no breeze around, we thought that may be the case.

"We thought if the weather was in the low 30s we could get a crowd of around 1500.

"But it is the first year the club has staged a meeting on Boxing Day and we were only allocated the replacement meeting mid-year.

"Hopefully the people that attended today still enjoyed themselves."

IN OTHER NEWS

Hetherton said the club wasn't guaranteed to race again on Boxing Day next year and would discuss the merits at committee level.

"We will reevaluate and see what we want to do next year," he said.

"I'll have a chat to the committee before deciding if we want to commit to the date.

"We aren't guaranteed the date and that is something we have to discuss with Racing NSW."

Meanwhile Corowa trainer Geoff Duryea and his talented mare News Girl have combined for a well-deserved city success at Caulfield.

Ridden by claiming apprentice Lewis German, News Girl ($4.40) won the $125,000 Benchmark 70 Hcp, (1200m).

Although News Girl is a noted front-runner, German elected to sit just off a hot speed.

It proved to be a race winning move, as News Girl hit the front in the final furlong and was able to stave off the challenge of Pinyin ($4) by a nose.

News Girl was heavily supported late in betting, backed from $6.50 to $4.40 after finishing fourth first-up at Moonee Valley earlier in the month.

Duryea said he purposefully missed the lucrative spring carnival with his stable star to target a city race in weaker company.

"It's a satisfying victory because we (the stable) aren't big players and you savour these moments against the bigger city stables," Duryea said.

"A lot of the owners involved in the horse have been stable supporters for a long time and that makes the win that extra bit special.

"I thought she was a bit unlucky last preparation not to win in the city and thoroughly deserves this success today.

"I missed the spring on purpose to race over the summer and target a race like this.

"So it's a satisfying result."