For the first time in its history it hosts a nine-race program on Saturday with the time-honoured $30,000 Penshurst Cup scheduled to be the last race on the big card.

Club secretary Brendan Kelly told The Standard the early response to the change of date for the meeting had been positive.

"We've got nine races," Kelly said.

"We've never had nine races on the program before. It's a great effort considering Terang race on Friday and Hamilton have a meeting on Monday.

"Owners and trainers have really thrown their support behind the day and early indications are we'll have a very good crowd on-course.

"There's already 26 umbrella packages sold and our pre-sold tickets sales are holding up really well. It was a tough decision to make the change from Boxing Day but it appears to have been the right one."

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Nine runners will face the starter for the Penshurst Cup with the Aaron Purcell trained Takumi one of the best hopes.

Purcell said Takumi should be hard to beat in the 2000-metre contest.

"Takumi looks to be a good hope," he said .

"It's a pretty even race. There's a few chances in it. I would say the club would be happy with the quality of the cup field.

"We're undecided what to do with Takumi going forward it all depends how well he runs on Saturday.

"It's in the back of my mind to take him back to town for distance races if he runs well but if he puts in a bad one we may give him a short let-up."

The Penshurst Cup is set down for decision at 5.24pm.

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