THE Cairns Cup will be raced on a Sunday and have TAB status this year.

In a boost for the Cairns Jockey Club, the cup carnival will now be run over one weekend instead of consecutive Saturdays.

The cup, due to be run on Sunday, August 10, will be a TAB meeting with Sky Channel broadcasting live from the Cannon Park course.

In further good news, the Sunday meet looks set to be the only TAB meeting in Queensland on that day, ensuring more widespread media attention.

Cairns Jockey Club manager Michael Stewart said it was one of the first steps of putting Cairns racing back on the
national map.

Cairns has not had regular TAB meets since 2002, although the outbreak of Equine Influenza last year brought TAB meetings to the Far North after race meetings were cancelled elsewhere in the state.

"With no other TAB club operating a TAB meeting on the Sunday, it's an absolute boon for the club," Stewart said.

"It's going to be a great thing, it will put Cairns racing back on the map.

"We're confident we’ll be able to attract a ripper crowd, and we can look forward to two ripper days of racing."

Last year's Cairns Cup attracted a crowd of 8500 but Stewart was hopeful the turnout would be far greater on the Sunday.

"We’d certainly want to be attracting a crowd of 10,000 people on the Sunday. Cairns is a tourist town and a few people will have the Monday off and even those working the next day, I’m sure they’ll have a great time as well."

Sky Channel's decision to broadcast from Cannon Park was also warmly welcomed by Stewart. "We’ve been negotiating with them (Sky), and we will have Larry Olsen here on the Sunday," he said.

While the exact format of the new look Saturday-Sunday two-day carnival is still to be decided at committee level, Stewart predicted a five-race meet on the Saturday and eight races on cup day.

"That's what we've got in front of us now, it’s a little bit of organising and it’s challenging for us, being something new," Stewart said.

"But it’s something we’re looking forward too."