Councillors are set to vote on the change at a special meeting on Wednesday.

The council has since 2008 appointed the first Thursday in May to celebrate the Warrnambool May Racing Carnival as a public holiday in lieu of November's Melbourne Cup.

But the coronavirus has caused racing groups to wind the May races back to May 5 and 6, cancelling racing on the public holiday slated for May 7.

Most people asked in a poll by The Standard if Warrnambool's May racing public holiday should change said they supported the date moving, but some have also questioned why the races were going ahead at all.

About 84 per cent of 273 responses to the poll agreed the public holiday should now change.

A majority said the holiday should be moved to Melbourne Cup day while nearly 35 per cent simply wanted another date when health restrictions ceased.

Eleven per cent wanted the day to support the Warrnambool Show.

Sharlene Ingram Lancaster said on social media that the public holiday should be delayed until the year's end.

"People can't mingle anyway this year, can't go to the pub even to watch it," she said.

Julie Bakewell said other public holidays were scheduled to go ahead as normal and the date should remain.

"We always have next year to look forward to," she said.

But with crowds banned from this year's carnival, some including Belinda Dwyer took to social media to question if the races should be cancelled too.

"I can't understand why horse racing is still given the green light and everything else has been cancelled," she said.

The change will require the council to request an amendment to Victoria's Government Gazette, which in March already published Warrnambool City Council's May substitute for the public holiday.