The winner of each race at Royal Randwick will have their return to scale delayed after concerns were raised about raucous crowds agitating beaten horses at The Everest meeting.

The Australian Turf Club has confirmed they will make a small tweak to their post-race protocols after partying punters celebrated wildly last week, causing angst for handlers trying to take horses back to the raceday stalls.

In particular, jockey Tommy Berry solicited roars from the crowd as he gestured to them after Art Cadeau’s win in The Kosciuszko, prompting several horses to appear uneasy with the noise.

It was the first major event in Sydney since the end of the months-long lockdown with 10,000 fully vaccinated patrons on track for the running of the world’s richest turf race.

While the ATC stopped short of confirming horses would return to raceday stalls through the tunnel and out to the Theatre of the Horse instead of along a chute lined by punters, it did say they had made minor changes to how horses come back to scale.

They will include having the winner stay out on track a little longer to allow more time for the strappers and other horses to clear the area.

“There will be changes to the horse operations to give a little bit more space between those horses clearing and the celebration moment, which was well received on the weekend,” said James Ross, the ATC’s general manager of racing.

“There will be a couple of adjustments to our post-race procedure. We’ll have more time before the winner returns. Our objective is to make sure people enjoy racing moments to the fullest, and we want to strike a positive balance between a celebration moment and fan engagement.”