GRC SET TO WELCOME BACK PUNTERS:

Race day bookings take off

THE Geelong Racing Club is set to welcome punters back to the track this month, with trials on Monday to kick start its return to racing following major track renovations.

Chief executive Daniel Salter said a series of autumn and winter Friday meetings had already proven to be popular among businesses and charity organisations, as the club looked to build momentum ahead of the spring.

“We will do our best to try to sell out all of our Fridays to local businesses and charity organisations who we are working through with at the moment,” Salter said.

“We have locked in the majority of our Fridays, which is fantastic, including customers who are coming back after a year off.

“We have the APCO Foundation on board, and the Torquay Cup in May, and we roll into similar activity through June and July, and then get into the new racing season on August 1.

“The feedback we have had is that people are ready to engage and get back to the races and start having functions, so it is exciting.”

The first official meeting after Monday’s trials will be Tuesday, April 20, which Salter said would be a low-key, soft opening for the following Friday — 10 days later on April 30 — which had already attracted a high level of interest.

“Tuesdays are relatively quiet so we will open the facilities for the public and members but they are generally not big days this time of year,” he said.

“It is a good test for a soft reopening and we will have a few hundred there in a casual sense and then get to the races on Friday the 30th, where we probably have about 250 people booked in for lunch already, which is great.”

The most recent meeting held at Geelong was in January, with the club forced to move the annual St Patrick’s Cup to Colac in March.