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A PUBLIC holiday on Horsham Cup day has drawn a mixed response from the community.
Horsham and District Racing Club officials called on Horsham Rural City Council to move the municipality’s Melbourne Cup public holiday to the day of the Wimmera meeting in an attempt to boost attendance.
The council granted a full-day public holiday for the Cup – until 2019 – and the decision was met with confusion and uproar.
Most Horsham students attended school on Friday and took Tuesday as their public holiday. Many Horsham businesses also chose to remain open on Friday, citing it as their busiest day of the week with people visiting from outside the municipality to shop and attend appointments.
The racing club’s manager Lisa Inkster said attendance at the Horsham Cup did increase compared to last year, with about 1800 people through the gates.
She said highlights included strong entries in the fashions on the field competition along with a visit from Clydesdale horses.
She said a public holiday for schools next year would mean a greater focus on children’s entertainment.
“We’re thrilled with how the day went and we certainly had some growth in our attendance, which is brilliant. It was a really, really positive day,” she said.
Horsham Mayor Pam Clarke said there was a great atmosphere at the track.
She said the council would review the public holiday decision next year – but it was shored up until 2019.
“I think it is too soon to tell if the public holiday had an impact. We will have to see the outcome next year when all the schools will be having that day as a holiday,” she said. “It also depends on whether people decide to go the Cup or if they take off for the long weekend.”
She said events across the weekend including a Farm to Fork market in Roberts Place and the Natimuk Frinj Festival had the city “buzzing”.
Crossroads clothing store manager Cate Rigby said trade was down.
“The general feedback I received from shoppers were mostly complaints about the public holiday,” she said.
“A woman from Nhill had travelled to Horsham to go to the bank and it was shut. She said that she knew that the Cup was on, but not that it was a public holiday. She said it wasn’t advertised that things would be closed.
“Another woman from Donald had come to Horsham to buy a dress for a wedding but the shops were shut.
“Sales were down.
“About 95 per cent of people were from out of town and the surrounding areas coming in for their fortnightly shop. Usually, we have a variety of people.”