"I can almost certainly guarantee it'll be the smallest crowd in Wellington Boot history," Darney said recently when asked exactly how many people will be present at the banner event.

Due to COVID-19 and Racing NSW regulations, only essential personnel will be allowed at what is normally the biggest event of the year for Wellington.

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"You'd have the trainers, strappers, barrier attendants and officials, there won't be much, certainly fewer than a hundred people," Darney said.

While in any other year losing crowd attendance would be a deep wound for the event, this year it's an even harsher blow, following Racing NSW upping the prize money and a promising influx of visitors who had made plans to attend this year.

"It is hugely valuable," Darney said.

"It's vital to our community here as well, it's something that really is mostly owned by the Wellington people, it's a huge act of faith by Racing NSW to increase the prize money the way they did, we've had marquees booked way more than recent years, the whole town was booked out with accomodation, it's a huge loss of income for the pubs, clubs and homestays around."

"That $200,000 prize brought a whole new sort of environment, there was people that weren't going to have been here before that were coming out this way."

Darney said that while usually the community would be elbow-deep in the activities and races held on the day, it would be tougher for them to show their support this year.

"You can't have a gathering, obviously, a good 50 percent of the turnover for Racing NSW is through pubs and clubs, so it's going to be a huge hit," Darney said.

"I'm not expecting any miracles, but hopefully people will tune in and watch it to support it a bit."

"But the main thing is the health of the people right now, we've got to make sure we do the right thing and then racing will return sooner rather than later."