It is a major win for the club as Victorian country tracks battle to remain afloat with no crowds allowed at meetings.
Benalla Racing Club general manager Cameron Symes said the cup had been left in limbo while the AFL tried to sort out if, and when, it would stage the 2020 grand final.
Symes said the club had pushed hard to retain its partnership with the AFL and Racing Victoria had “been extraordinarily patient and understanding” of the delay.
He said in the end the AFL named Saturday, October 24 – and that created another bottleneck to try and sort out.
“Echuca already had a meeting set for the Friday, Moonee Valley has the $1 million Manikato Stakes on the Friday and the Cox Plate was being run as a twilight event at Moonee Valley on Saturday – and we wanted to squeeze the bet365 Benalla Gold Cup in there somewhere,” Symes said.
“Fortunately we had been scheduled to run a meeting on the Monday so Echuca very generously agreed to a swap,” he said.
“That got us the Friday, and then we were faced with competition for the cup from the juggernaut that is the spring carnival.
“The bet365 Benalla Gold Cup is a 2040m race but the next day the Group 1 $5 million Cox Plate is a 2040m run, as is the Group 2 $200,000 Moonee Valley Vase.
“Throw in the Group 2 $500,000 Moonee Valley Cup over 2500m and we were simply outpriced and outgunned and surrounded.”
So Benalla Racing Club has – just for 2020 – changed its prestigious event to a 1400m race.
Symes admitted it was a tough call but he said his club was determined to attract the best field possible for its flagship day.
“With a $125,000 purse, and the $50,000 Ryan McNulty Weary Dunlop over 2046m the race before, we are pretty confident it will prove irresistible to some very good horses – they can’t all fit into the Cox Plate,” he said.
“We also understand we can apply for an exemption to at least get owners and members to attend cup day and we will be going down that path – most of our business partners are also members so it would be brilliant if we could at least have them, maybe about 500 people.
“If we were allowed to have more that would be the icing on the cake.
“Racing Minister Martin Pakula has been keen to get people back to the races so we will keep pushing.”
Apart from these changes Country Racing Victoria has confirmed the picnic meetings at Alexandra, Healesville, Mansfield and Balnarring had been cancelled.
All non-TAB meetings on Melbourne Cup Day – Cranbourne, Bairnsdale, Wangaratta and Mildura – have also been shelved, leaving Flemington and the TAB meeting at Echuca as the only Victorian race meetings on November 3.
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