What will happen on Lismore Cup day this year?

IT’S the biggest day on Lismore’s racing calendar, but it may be run very differently this year.

Lismore Cup day activities and promotions will be decided by July 1. Photo Marc Stapelberg.

LISMORE Cup is set to go ahead this year but whether it involves crowds or features big prizes from its new 100 Club promotion remains up in the air.

The club has given itself a deadline of July 1 with the major prize of the 100 Club being the naming rights sponsor of the major race on cup day in September.

The naming rights campaign is aimed at local businesses with each slot costing $750 with about half of them already sold before the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Lismore Turf Club operations manager Daniel Kedraika said they were hoping to keep the promotion running.

“We’ll wait until July 1 and if crowds aren’t allowed back by then we’ll have to postpone the promotion until next year,” Kedraika said.

“We wanted to put that deadline on ourselves to keep everyone in the loop.

“The first three prizes all come with naming rights and restrictions will have to be eased for what a lot of the other prizes involved.”

Grafton has its big winter carnival coming up in July while Lismore is working towards its cup day on September 24.

The club is optimistic that restrictions on crowds will be eased by then and they can run the day as close to normal as possible.

“We’re confident at this stage that things will work in our favour by then,” Kedraika said.

“We’ve bucked the trend with country cups in recent years where our numbers are actually growing.

“It’s a big day for us and we had over 6000 people last year.

“Having the public holiday is important and we’ll have that for at least the next two years.”

Lismore Turf Club has only had one meeting since Racing NSW limited it to jockeys, trainers and staff in March.

The club has been under maintenance for the last few months with only a handful of meetings since December.

“We’ve had our time of year where we complete upgrades around the place as part of our agreement with Racing NSW,” secretary-manager Scott Jones said.