GRC looks forward to summer racing crowds

THE Geelong Racing Club (GRC) is disappointed there will again be no crowd at the Geelong Cup this year, but is looking forward to good attendance and lesser restrictions at race meetings this summer.

Scheduled for October 20, the GRC earlier cancelled all outdoor marquees but hoped to still have indoor dining and general admission ticketholders at the course.

The timeline of the Victorian government’s roadmap, which indicated crowds would only be allowed from November 5 onwards, along with the City of Greater Geelong not being one of the six municipalities holding trial events, eventually forced the GRC’s hand, leading it to announce on Wednesday last week that the 2021 Geelong Cup would be crowd-free.

GRC chief executive officer Luke Rayner said the club was “pretty much fighting an uphill battle” to get an exemption for crowds but it had done everything it could.

“All we did was lobby behind the scenes and continue to ask the question if we could be potentially considered, but in the end, the continual response that came back was no.

“It’s extremely unfortunate and extremely disappointing.

“It’s two years in a row now where the community doesn’t get to really engage with our club on that one major race day where a lot of people come to the club for their once a year outing and the celebration at the bet365 Geelong Cup, and everything that brings from a social standpoint.”

The Geelong Cup is the GRC’s flagship event and typically attracts upwards of 10,000 of racegoers each year.

“It’s our largest crowd number, it’s our largest sales day, it’s our largest corporate hospitality event, so there’s a myriad of implications from a financial perspective,” Mr Rayner said.

“However we have certainly been the beneficiaries, as have all race clubs, of really generous industry support under what’s been trying and difficult circumstances under the COVID period.

“But we don’t sit here and look at it as all doom and gloom – we understand the roadmap, we know there’s clarity and hopefully some certainty moving forward in terms of what it looks like, and hopefully as the days and weeks pass, the restrictions get relaxed further and further, and come December and January, we can get as many people to the racetrack as we possibly can.”

The GRC is preparing to welcome crowds back through the gates on November 6 for the Ballan Cup, with Girls on Track on November 14, Christmas Day racing on December 10 and Boxing Day racing on December 26 the next three premium events.

“Per the roadmap, we know can get some minimum crowds in from November 6 onwards, meeting the quota requirements indoors and then maximum capacity outdoors,” Mr Rayner said.

“So even on the basis of those guidelines, we can plan forward with a bit of certainty around those key race dates for the club leading into the new year.”