Muswellbrook Gold Cup: A Great Move To Move

Kim Waugh (pictured) trained Muswellbrook Gold Cup winner Dylan’s Rojo. COUNTRY race clubs don’t always get the credit they so often deserve.

But Muswellbrook Race Club certainly deserves plenty of kudos for “having a full-blooded go” with its new Gold Cup date. The club took the bit between its teeth and switched its biggest meeting of the year away from the traditional Melbourne Cup date to a new Friday timeslot in late November.

They had their sceptics, who couldn’t fathom why Muswellbrook would want to move from the sanctity of the biggest day in Australian racing.

But the success of the new date last Friday week has shown that this is a club prepared to both take on new challenges and give them their best shot. With energetic general manager Duane Dowell at the helm and backed by a committee which is “110 per cent behind the switch”, Muswellbrook is clearly a race club moving with the times.

Firm in the view that its Gold Cup wasn’t getting the focus it should, the club made the bold decision to run the meeting a few weeks later on a Friday – and RacingNSW backed the move, awarding Country Showcase status to the day. This ensured every race on the program was worth a minimum $30,000. Muswellbrook previously was granted a half-day holiday for the “first Tuesday in November” and, with the support of Muswellbrook Shire Council, was able to obtain NSW Government approval a couple of months ago to transfer it to the new date.

The November 25 meeting drew a 40 per cent increase on last year’s Cup attendance, and also resulted in increased sponsorship and higher TAB turnover. The club, fully aware that its decision to shift dates didn’t have universal community support, threw plenty into promoting the meeting to get the message across. Indeed, their promotion of the meeting was outstanding and no doubt many other clubs could take a lesson from it. Dowell says the club’s aim is to garner widespread community support and create a sporting festival, which will also entice visitors to spend a couple days in Muswellbrook.

Racing luminaries such as Hugh Bowman, James Cummings and Ciaron Maher took part in a 156-strong field of golfers at Muswellbrook Golf Club the afternoon preceding the Cup meeting.

A total of $20,000 was raised for Movers and Shakers, a Hunter-based support foundation for local people suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Sydney radio personality Terry Kennedy then chaired an informal chat with Bowman, Cummings and Maher before TAB’s Glenn Munsie hosted the Cup Calcutta, which followed immediately afterwards.

Now that the first Cup has been run on the new date, Dowell wants to ensure the meeting continues to grow. As such, he would like to see RacingNSW grant his club a stand-alone Friday without a Canterbury night program that evening. Correctly, he reasons it would give Muswellbrook the opportunity to attract some higher-profile Sydney jockeys to their meeting.

Dowell is also intent on strengthening Muswellbrook’s Gold Sponsors’ club (Hollydene Estate Wines won the naming rights for last week’s Cup).“We’ve already had half a dozen businesses saying they would like to become new members of the club next year,” he said. “It’s great value at $1500 plus GST. Each Gold Sponsor goes into the draw to get Cup naming rights. “They can’t all win that, of course, but each business is guaranteed sponsorship of a race at Muswellbrook during the year.”

Dowell also believes the new Cup date is an opportune time to attract more of racing’s well-known identities, who are inspecting yearlings at Hunter Valley studs prior to the Magic Millions sale at the Gold Coast in January. “That’s why Ciaron Maher was here from Melbourne. He agreed to play in the golf tournament as part of the Vinery team, and stayed in the area until the Saturday morning.

“Those who doubted our move to a new date now seem convinced it is the correct decision. “We had really good feedback on Friday and subsequently, and many are already telling us they want to be involved next year. “It would be great if we could firm up a 2017 date with RacingNSW as soon as possible. “This is the start of a new tradition. We have to make sure we continue to redevelop it.”

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