Another New Zealand horse claims the Ballarat Cup
Ballarat Cup day was run and won but the weather intervened to dampen the day for some racegoers. See all the photos from the day here.
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The rainfall might have deterred hundreds of people from going to the Ballarat Cup but it didn’t stop others from having a good time.
Wet and windy conditions greeted racegoers as the Ballarat Turf Club hosted its biggest day of the year on Saturday.
More than 5mm of rain fell at the venue as the track got wet and muddy and the marquees suffered a similar fate.
Starting the day at a good four, the track worsened to a soft seven by 2.30pm in the afternoon.
By the time the Cup started, just after 4pm, it was overcast but dry, allowing the main race to be run in dry conditions but on a soft track.
But the early rainfall had done its damage to crowd numbers.
Ballarat Turf Club CEO Belinda Glass estimates the weather cost the club more than 2000 racegoers.
“It’s challenging when you have a beautiful day yesterday, blue skies, sunshine and you wake up this morning and it was a bit dull and overcast,” she said.
“I don’t know where we are going to land but it won’t be like the 8,000 or 9,000 we get on a regular basis with reasonable weather.
“I think realistically it will probably be a surprise if we had more than 2,500 through the gate as general admission, so we might land somewhere at the 6500 to 7000 at a guess.”
The Cup was taken out by the Michael Moroney trained Bankers Choice, who won by more than two lengths over race favourite Atishu.
Bankers Choice, from New Zealand, becomes the third straight Kiwi winner after Zayydani and Irish Flame won the previous two editions.
Jockey John Allen, who rode the winner, won his third Ballarat Cup crown in the past five years.
While the Cup day didn’t meet the clubs expectations with crowds, it was better than other clubs around the state who haven’t been able to host their Cup day.
Ballarat next week will step in to help another club who has been forced to postpone their Picnic Day to another day.
“For the first time ever Ballarat will host a picnic meeting on the picnic (meet) from Woolamai next week,” Glass said.
“The first six picnic meetings for the season have been cancelled due to weather.
“It’s not common for a country club like us to run a picnic meeting but given the challenges that everyone has faced and given we have the poli track it allows us to help the industry and provide another race meet.”
Woolamai will host its rescheduled picnic meet on December 10 with Ballarat hosting its event next weekend, November 26.
Head to the clubs website for more information on the day.
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