Towong Turf Club has had its planned 150th anniversary celebrations dampened by COVID-19 restrictions.
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Although the club's highly-popular annual cup meeting will still go ahead on Saturday, the crowd has been capped at 1400.
The limited tickets have already been snapped up by eager patrons with the meeting sold out.
The club usually attracts an average crowd of 3000 but has had instances of more than 4000 racegoers flocking to the course in recent years.
Last year the club was forced to hold a phantom meeting after a deluge of heavy rainfall fell on the day before the cup and left the track unsuitable for racing.
An estimated 2800-plus people still converged on the iconic high country race track despite no live racing.
Club manager Rohan Whitehead said the club sought approval from the Victorian government for an increase on the crowd cap of 1000.
"We initially sought approval to host a crowd of 2000 but then decided ourselves to cap the crowd at 1400," Whitehead said.
"All those tickets have been sold and unfortunately no more tickets can be purchased on the day.
"We had 2800 attend last year for our phantom meeting after the washout.
"So we are basically at 50 per cent of our normal capacity."
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Whitehead was hoping the club could break even financially with the reduced crowd.
"We are hoping we can make a small profit or at least break even," he said.
"To be honest we are just grateful to be racing considering it's the club's 150th anniversary.
"We made a decision as a committee that we were determined to have a race meeting no matter what hurdles we had to overcome.
"I would like to think with favourable weather we could have got a crowd of more than 4000 this year.
"But three weeks ago when there was a snap lock down in Victoria we could have ended up with no crowd."
Whitehead said it didn't take long for the club to sell its allocated tickets.
"We have already had to knock back people inquiring about tickets and naturally they are disappointed," he said.
"Obviously we tried to look after our members first and offered them a priority booking.
"Sponsors were also offered the chance to buy tickets before they went on sale to the general public.
"It's another blow for the local businesses and community who usually benefit on the influx of people the cup meeting attracts.
"After the bushfires, last year's meeting being washed out and the COVID-19 restrictions it's been tough.
"But it's not all doom and gloom with the track in fantastic condition and the cup worth a record $40,000."
