Cairns Cup will go ahead, says Jockey Club boss

Cairns Jockey Club general manager John Cameron says the first day of the Cairns Cup Carnival will go ahead as scheduled on Saturday, August 21.

Cairns Jockey Club general manager John Cameron says the first day of the Cairns Cup Carnival will go ahead on Saturday, August 21.

The lockdown for Cairns and Yarrabah was lifted on Wednesday afternoon, however a range of restrictions are still in place until August 22.

While the restrictions include limits on the number of people allowed to attend indoor and outdoor events, Cameron said the club’s premeditated planning would allow the annual Cairns Cup Ladies Day to go ahead.

“It was a huge blessing in disguise that we were already planning to space members out, and therefore the only real area that we’re going to have to put some controls in is the general public,” he said.

Horses run in the 2020 Cairns Cup. PICTURE: STEWART McLEAN

“We are usually set up here for close to 5000 people, but we’re predicting only about 2500 people will come, so most of the area will automatically be within the right sort of criteria that we need to.

“We decided two months ago – in the event this might happen – to expand the area out the back of the public bar and put marquees out there.

“We’re comfortable with the numbers we’ve got at the moment, so all we’re really wanting to do now is allocate the public patrons a seat, and we’ve got the extra marquees to enable that to happen.

“We couldn’t have done any more for what’s eventuated.”

Cameron said the club had changed part of its booking system to ensure anyone purchasing a ticket from here on in will be allocated a seat.

“That’s the biggest fundamental change for us,” he said.

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“We’re considering that everyone might have to pre-book for that day, and that will just help us manage everything a little bit easier. So that may include owners – everyone – just so we know where we’re putting them and we can abide by the rules that we need to.

“There’s nothing that’s providing us with too much difficulty, other than people have to wear masks, so just as long as everybody does the right thing and abides by that rule.

“We had a lot of help from Queensland Health last year, and the fact they were able to help us so much back then means that we’re pretty well prepared for August 21.”

Originally published as Cairns Cup will go ahead, says Jockey Club boss