Eagle Farm debacle: The story behind Queensland Racing’s biggest fall
QUEENSLAND’S premier racetrack has been the subject of ridicule and political poison for the best part of four years as the subject of one of the biggest racing bungles in history. Courier-Mail racing writer Nathan Exelby explains how it all went wrong.
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BRISBANE’S premier racetrack has been the subject of ridicule and political poison for the best part of four years as the subject of one of the biggest racing bungles in history.
What should have been a six-month project at Eagle Farm – announced in June 2014 – is still yet to be resolved, with the first reincarnation a flop and the second one suffering inexcusable delays.
Both sides of politics have copped a hammering over the seemingly never-ending list of blunders that have kept it sidelined.
On Wednesday, Racing Queensland Chief Executive Eliot Forbes became the first scapegoat in the long running saga, when he resigned from his post after less than two years.
Racing Minister Stirling Hinchliffe put the writing on the wall for Forbes last week when he threatened to make changes at Racing Queensland after an engineering company walked out on the project.
Forbes fell on his sword, as Racing Queensland had taken control of the project.
The irony for Forbes is that he was at the helm at a time where RQ turned around its financial fortunes and persuaded the Labor Government to implement its $70 million Country Racing Policy, freeing up some $15 million a year to divert back into prizemoney.
It was just January when Forbes announced much-needed prizemoney increases, but the sinking ship at Eagle Farm overshadowed any other achievements he had during his tenure.
HOW DID IT GET TO THIS?
Why does Brisbane have two racetracks?
Brisbane has two neighbouring racetracks bordering Ascot and Hendra thanks to a quirk of history.
They were originally operated by two competing clubs, the Queensland Turf Club (Eagle Farm, est. 1865) and Brisbane Turf Club (Doomben, est. 1933) and emerged next two each other as all the horse stables were in surrounding suburbs.
Repeated plans to sell off one track failed and they eventually merged into the Brisbane Racing Club, which formed on July 1, 2009.
It has since unlocked a $1.2 billion master plan to develop spare land in the Eagle Farm precinct and preserve both tracks.
What’s the history of the Eagle Farm rebuild?
In June 2014, then Treasurer Tim Nicholls announced that Eagle Farm would have its first major overhaul in 150 years. Racing stopped in August of that year.
It was to be a $10 million grant from the Racing Infrastructure Fund, with another $12 million loan to the Brisbane Racing Club to build tunnels to the infield.
However, the change of government halted the approval of all the funds and it wasn’t until midway through 2015 that it was fully signed off.
Racing eventually returned to Eagle Farm in June 2016, but the surface was plagued by problems from the outset.
What went wrong?
The new track was designed to have state of the art drainage in a sand profile. The chosen grass never fully ‘took’ to the profile and the surface was shifty and not desirable for thoroughbred horse racing.
After showing some signs of improvement, the grass almost died in March 2017 and despite an expensive maintenance program, the track was ridiculed by the best jockeys in Australia on May 27 last year.
The next day, Racing Queensland made the decision to ground racing at Eagle Farm and transferred the remainder of the carnival to Doomben.
Who was held accountable for the initial track failure?
No one.
A report by former Victorian Racing Club Chief Executive Dale Monteith found the initial project failed at many levels, including the shape of the sand chosen, the type of grass used and maintenance practices adopted.
Fingers were pointed at Racing Queensland, track builder Evergreen and the Brisbane Racing Club, but ultimately, no one accepted full responsibility.
In April 2017, champion jockey Chris Munce and premier trainer Tony Gollan said the track needed to be “ripped up.”
The next day, BRC Chief Executive Dave Whimpey described their comments as “embarrassing.”
After two more race meetings, the decision was taken to rip up the track.
How should it have been fixed?
In August last year, the Monteith report was handed down and Forbes announced a rebuild of the Eagle Farm track, with an anticipated return date of April 2018.
It was decided that rather than a 100 per cent sand profile, it would be better to mix in loam, to give the grass roots more chance to stabilise in the profile.
Racing Queensland took full control of the track rebuild.
Why has it been delayed again?
The tender process took a number of months and by November it was apparent the original timeline was unrealistic.
In early December, Racing Queensland announced the winter carnival would be transferred to Doomben, meaning Queensland’s showcase race, the Stradbroke Handicap, will be run at its Eagle Farm home just once in the past four years.
A spring return was then planned, but materials ran out in January and there has not been a new blade of grass put down in the past seven weeks, leaving a 700m section of track still unturfed and the possibility of racing not returning to Eagle Farm until 2019.
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