BAIRNSDALE: Concern For Cup Day Meetings
Story By Tim Bull
Tuesday, 14 October 2008: It is no secret the club relies heavily on this day for its overall financial viability.
While the club is again confident of pulling a big crowd it is the question of horse numbers that is creating unease as Moe Racing Club has also been granted a Melbourne Cup day meeting for the first time in a week when there is already an enormous amount of racing east of Melbourne.
Latrobe Valley Racing Club has a meeting three days prior and Stony Creek also races three days later to place more pressure on the Melbourne Cup day meetings.
The apprehension at Bairnsdale centres around whether the additional meeting at Moe on the same day will result in sub standard racing fields in the region.
Last year Bairnsdale's six non-TAB races attracted final acceptors of 13, 6, 5, 3, 12, 7 - 46 in all - just enough to run a reasonable race meeting.
The year prior it was 47, so there is some consistency on which to gauge any impact this year.
Industry representatives believe the Moe meeting will have no impact on horse numbers at Bairnsdale, but there are some who see this as a naïve outlook.
Moe is running as a high weight meeting but this will only alleviate competition for jockeys, not horses.
Come Melbourne Cup day and the industry decision makers will either be justified or have a big problem to contend with.
* AFTER failing to recapture his best form at Caulfield last Saturday Bairnsdale sprinter Tesbury Jack will now head to the paddock for a spell.
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