Reviving the Mackay Beach Horse Racing Festival akin to ‘flogging a dead horse’
Another location could snatch the once-popular unique horse racing event as questions arise over its economic viability.
Mackay
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Once attracting up to 5000 people, the Mackay Beach Horse Racing Festival might never return to the region.
The unique event has been on hiatus since 2018 after Purple Betty Productions, which ran the 2017 races, said fence-jumpers “killed” her small family-owned business.
Mackay Regional Councillor Alison Jones said reviving the event could be “flogging a dead horse” and questioned at the ordinary meeting on Wednesday whether the council should invest any further money.
“They stopped (the races) because there wasn’t any profit,” Cr Jones said.
The council recently teamed up with Mackay Tourism to engage Sound Australia to complete a feasibility study into the races.
Cr Jones said she wished them well but her commitment would be to ratepayers and looking at the event holistically, taking into account families with young children and pensioners who may not patron the races.
“It shouldn’t be a responsibility of council to continually pay time after time for events,” she said.
Councillor Justin Englert said Mackay was on track to have the “premier” event back but was at risk of losing it to other towns, with a Perth community giving the unique beachside race a spin.
Cr Englert said Mackay did not have professionals capable of hosting the large-scale event with an external business, Economic Developments, putting forward an expression of interest to take it on.
“What (Sound Australia’s) told us is if you manage it differently, if you have some (professional) people involved, it could actually be a really good event, a really good generator of tourism and visitation, nightly stays,” he said.
He said Economic Developments wanted more information before committing and it was not yet known whether it would seek financial input from the council.
The council invested $50,000 towards the races in 2016 and again in 2017 under its Invest Mackay Events and Conference Attraction Program.
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It also provided in-kind help ranging from providing waste and recycling bins to waiving park hire fees.
Cr Englert said the races would not return for at least the next 12 months with no one yet having signed the “bottom line”.
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Originally published as Reviving the Mackay Beach Horse Racing Festival akin to ‘flogging a dead horse’
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