Crowd-less cup rides again

THE Bendigo Cup will run without a crowd for the second year in a row.

CEO of Bendigo Jockey Club Aaron Hearps said the Cup missed out on being part of the region’s vaccinated economy trial by one day.

“Unfortunately, the trial dates conclude on 26 October and the Cup’s on 27 October,” he said. “We were just a day out of their trial date range so unfortunately, we weren’t eligible to be considered as one of those trial events.”

Mr Hearps said the State Government’s announcement that the Melbourne Cup could have a crowd of 10,000 fully vaccinated patrons gives BCJ confidence for its November and December events.

“That puts us in a much more positive mindset,” he said. “Our two race meets in November and our last one for the year, our Christmas race day on 12 December, are locked in to have crowds, which is great.”

He said BJC staff and participants at race days are required to be fully vaccinated, and patrons will be required to be fully vaccinated as well.

“We’re well on our way to ensuring 100 per cent of our staff will be double vaccinated by early November and we’ll put the protocols in place to ensure patrons are also double vaccinated and able to prove that before entering,” he said.

Last year, BJC worked with 26 hospitality venues celebrating the Bendigo Cup public holiday off course and Mr Hearps said the same thing will happen this year.

“We’ll work with those businesses again and will be posting those venues that will be operating and what different packages they have on offer on our website,” he said.