The weather gods delivered a perfect Autumn day for the Scott Group of Companies Mount Gambier Gold Cup on Friday.
Around 1500 keen racegoers experienced the sights and sounds of the event including entertainment, local food and wine, fashion and top quality racing with an eight race drawcard.
The Fashions on the Field event was popular, with Adelaide Hills visitor Jaimee Siviour winning the Best Dressed Womenswear category, Dan Thorburn was victorious in the Best Dressed Menswear and Katina and Adam Sims took out the Best Dressed Couple.
Mount Gambier Racing Club president Peter George said the crowd numbers were disappointing but comfortable.
“Looking back up towards the administration and the grand stand, there was a lovely group of people there so it did look as if there was good support on the day but it would have been nice to see 2000 people,” he said.
“We had horses here from Warrnambool and there was plenty of people here from around the place such as Murray Bridge and Adelaide.
“They drank plenty of booze on the day, there was plenty go over the bar so that sort of thing was very good.
“We could not have wished for better with the weather.
“The Calcutta this year was better than the Calcutta last year, it is growing well and we sold a lot more tickets this year than what we have previously printed.”
Mr George said there may be some changes to the gold cup line up next year.
“The cocktail party we cancelled through lack of interest so next year we are going to have a launch that is going to be a little bit different.
We will do it maybe in January and we will do it at the clubrooms so we will just try and package it a little better and space it out,” he said.
“We may not have as many tents down there; we may try and limit the package on that because I do not think people are quite accepting the packages on the tent.
“I think people would rather pay a general admission, have a bit of money in their pocket to spend on racing, have some food at the course and have a seat with an umbrella.
“That’s all they want really, just to be able to walk around and enjoy themselves on the day.”
