Following an approach by the club's new CEO, Peter McIntyre, the club's traditional cup meeting held on the Labour Day long weekend in March, will now be a two day event.

The carnival will be held on the Friday and Sunday of the March holiday weekend, providing a lure to draw visitors to Echuca and extending an already busy tourism period in the region.

Country Racing Victoria's state marketing manager, Doug Cross said the two day carnival was "a great opportunity for the local Echuca tourism industry to benefit from a unique attraction".

''People can get into the region a few days earlier than they otherwise might and as well as enjoying the racing, take in some of the area's unique tourist attractions. One can only guess as to the impact this might have on tourism expenditure in the area."

"The other side to the story is the co-operation between industry and Clubs that allowed this kind of change to the racing program to happen quickly" said Cross

"Changing racedates is always difficult. The Racing Department and Wimmera Racing CEO Tony O'Mara who provided sufficient flexibility to allow the change to take place, are to be congratulated on recognising the potential of the Carnival and acting so decisively."

Country Racing Victoria has also recently announced funding to co-operatively market over 100 events in country Victoria, reinforcing Racing's commitment to staging quality events in regional areas.

The Echuca announcement and the Event Marketing Strategy are a part of the Partnerships Plan recently released by Country Racing Victoria.

Racing Victoria Media Release