A healthy crowd of approximately 2000 punters headed to Towac Park on a warm and sunny afternoon for the race that stops the nation as well as a five-race on-course program.

The racegoers were well-dressed and well-behaved, although their punting prowess was largely absent in the Melbourne Cup.

Only small pockets of punters cheered Shocking’s win on screens around the Towac Park concourse, however, the crowd was in good spirits regardless.

“We’re really happy with the day. We’ve had everyone saying how great the day is and they’re happy with it and we’ve had a really good turnout this year,” Golden West Race Club (GWRC) Melbourne Cup day ambassador Natalie Crowe said.

“The community is getting behind and the businesses are getting behind it to make it a really good day.”

Crowd figures were not available yesterday, but estimates have the attendance up on previous years.

The GWRC’s function centre was also sold out, with 170 racegoers packing into corporate facilities in the grandstand.

Organisers praised the behaviour of the healthy crowd and Canobolas Local Area Command Superintendent Mark Szalajko was also happy racegoers enjoyed an incident-free day at the track.

“They’re well behaved. Intoxication levels are quite low. It’s a very sociable crowd, no issues at all,” Superintendent Szalajko said.

There was a strong police presence at Towac Park and that continued in the central business district last night as revellers returned to town.