It comes after, Horsham Rural City Council reallocated the Melbourne Cup public holiday to Horsham Cup day for 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Club manager Lisa Inkster said she was thrilled with the news.

“We are invested in building a regional event that encompasses the whole weekend,” she said. “We have to work quickly on this, but we want an event that will bring people to the region.”

Horsham Cup will be on November 3.

Mrs Inkster said the club was now calling on any Wimmera groups that wanted to have events on the same weekend.

“We want to hear from anyone who wants to run something co-currently to the cup and would like to join in our media campaign,” she said.

Mrs Inkster said she was pleased the cup day would be a public holiday for the next three years.

“It gives us a good ground to build on and we can assess the positives each year and make changes,” she said.

“You can’t assess something after only one year, so three years is perfect and hopefully the trend is upwards for the cup.”

The decision to reallocate the holiday came after council ran an online survey, asking residents on their opinion of the holiday.

Almost 30 per cent of people voted for the holiday to be on Horsham Cup day, however the majority of votes, 36.8 per cent, were in favour of keeping the holiday on Melbourne Cup day.

Cr David Grimble said the move provided a good opportunity to improve the city’s economy.

“This will create opportunities to highlight what Wimmera has to offer to a broader catchment,” he said.

Cr Josh Koenig said since Horsham Cup day was moved from a Sunday to a Friday in 2014, attendance had dropped by 33 per cent.

“This is a concern,” he said.

“The public holiday gives us  a chance to really sell Horsham – it’s a fantastic opportunity.

“The Horsham Cup is a category one race, meaning it will be the number one race on television that day.

“If done right, it could become a good family event, like it used to be on the Sunday.”

However, Cr Mark Radford and mayor Pam Clarke voted against the move.

Cr Radford said the change would negatively affect retailers, forcing many to close on their busiest day of the week.

“Horsham businesses will be disadvantaged by this big decision,” he said.

Cr Clarke said many people from outside Horsham came to the city on Fridays to shop.

“They will turn up and we won’t be open,” she said.