The eyes of the Australian thoroughbred racing fraternity will focus on Bendigo as the BJC hosts its annual standalone race day.

Acknowledged as Bendigo's best day of racing, with $1.5million in prizemoney on offer across the 10 race program, the event will serve as Victoria's metropolitan status race meeting on Saturday.

Scullie is hoping for plenty of walk-ups on Saturday to boost crowd numbers, to complement the excellent sales response to dining and race-day packages.

"We encourage our local community to get behind these marquee race days," he said.

"That is really critical to its success, having people on track to celebrate what is fantastic racing and a great social opportunity.

"There are still some opportunities for people to come along, be it under an umbrella or somewhere else, and certainly plenty of general admission."

No stranger to Golden Mile day - which has been run as a standalone Saturday meeting since 2012 - this year's event will be extra special for Scullie.

It will be his first as the BJC's chief executive officer and will cap a whirlwind six weeks in the role following the departure of former CEO Rob Heinjus.

"As a long time (race club) member myself, I know how special and fantastic the day is," Scullie said.

"We know the quality of racing there will be, but to be in a position to lead an organisation on a really key day for us on the racing calendar is really exciting.

"I'm pretty honoured to be here.

"We've been blessed with amazing fields and that is a credit to our track staff, headed by Wayne Tucker.

"We know we have a quality track that encourages people to come here.

"But also for the industry itself to have the amount of prizemoney on offer; that too attracts trainers and owners."

Following some light rain early in the week, Scullie said the track - rated a Good 4 on Friday morning - and the racecourse grounds and roses were all in tip-top condition.

A brilliant day of racing is highlighted by the $200,000 Listed Golden Mile, $200,000Bendigo Guineas and $250,00 VOBIS Gold Rush for two-year-olds.

With half a dozen Bendigo trainers having runners engaged, a parochial Scullie is not so secretly hoping for a local winner.

"This day really creates a lot of opportunities for our local trainers on a metro race day," he said.

"Brent Stanley, Toby Lake, Jess Gleeson, Rod Symons, Jarrod Robinson and Arthur Pace all have runners, so there is a good array of trainers.

"It was great to talk to Arthur (Pace) on (Wednesday). Just to hear the excitement in his voice to have the opportunity to have a runner on a metro race day on his home track in Bendigo was pretty special.

"Hopefully that's the case for many more Bendigo trainers going forward."

Pace savoured Golden Mile day success in 2022 with Colsridge, and will target the same race - the 1100m benchmark 84 - with the same horse on Saturday.

Stanley, who will saddle up Celui in the 1100m three-year-old handicap, is chasing back-to-back Golden Mile day wins following success last year with El Salto.

While there will be no locally-trained contender in the Golden Mile, the feature race will be a homecoming of sorts for a star former Bendigo galloper.

A dual Group 2-winner while trained in Bendigo by Josh Julius, Just Folk will make his return to Bendigo.

Now trained at Cranbourne by Gavin Bedggood, the son of Magnus and Fast Ruby broke through the $1 million mark in career prizemoney after his third-place finish in the Ballarat Cup last December.

While an expected Good track will be against Just Folk, Scullie expected the now seven-year-old to be a sentimental favourite on Saturday.

"I'm sure we can still claim him as our own," he said.

"Obviously Gavin Bedggood is now the trainer, but he's a dual Bendigo Horse of the Year award winner and a (race) winner at Bendigo.

"We're looking forward to seeing Just Folk back here at Bendigo.

"With the overall quality of the horses coming up here, I would encourage anyone to get down to the track and see some real up and coming stars, especially in the two-year-old race (Gold Rush) and the Guineas, or to simply enjoy a great social outing."