The proposal comes after the 2017 gift had a significant drop in entries, compared to the 2016 event despite it also being hosted in March.

Society president Joe Perry said moving the event would hopefully increase entries for the meet.

"Because of the change of date and it being so late in the season, we did have a big drop in numbers,” he said.

“We are disappointed in the number of runners who attended the gift and have started talking about changing the date.

"We are looking forward to it hopefully going back to the December date, but there are quite a few discussions that need to be had first.”

This year, the Ararat Gift was ran three weeks before the Stawell Gift.

Perry said hosting the event so close to the biggest event of the year did not help attract entries.

"This year we had no interstate runners attend the gift,” he said.

“When we have had it in December previously, we have had a few who are willing to make the trip down.

"We are hoping by moving the event back to a December date, that numbers will increase again.” 

The society will start discussions with the Victorian Athletics League and the Grampians Cricket Association in the coming weeks about the date change.

Perry said that despite the drop in numbers, the standard of running was still high.

"The running on the day was excellent with some fantastic efforts during the day,” he said.

"All events were very even with close finishes.

"The 3200m event that we added for the first time was popular, with a good number of runners entered into it, making it a good addition to the schedule.”

Alexandra Oval was in great condition despite the last game of cricket only two weeks prior.

Perry said he got positive feedback from runners throughout the day about the oval.

"The track was prepared magnificently and there were many compliments were made about it from all runners I spoke to throughout the day,” he said.

“So the people who prepared it deserve some recognition, they did a great job.”