Racing industry set to boom on the Coast

The Sunshine Coast racing industry is set to boom thanks to a steady population growth and the reinvigoration of one of the region’s towns.

GROWTH: Sunshine Coast Turf Club chief executive John Miller. Photo: Patrick Woods

THE Sunshine Coast racing industry is set to boom thanks to a steady population growth and the reinvigoration of one of the region’s towns.

New data commissioned by Racing Queensland has outlined the size and scope of the $1.5 billion industry to the state’s economy.

The figures, released by Racing Minister Stirling Hinchliffe, revealed the racing industry in the Sunshine Coast region was responsible for generating more than $80 million to the economy, representing 5.4 per cent of the industry’s Queensland total.

Sunshine Coast Turf Club chief executive John Miller said a significant number of people attended race meetings at the Corbould Park venue during 2017-2018.

“As far as racing clubs go, we would be one of the busiest racing clubs in Australia in terms of number of race meetings conducted,” he said.

“We had 72 race meetings, and there’s not many clubs getting around that could conduct that many … (so) the economic benefits to the region are quite substantial.”

The data also revealed that the economic impact generated by the industry on the Coast has sustained a total of 687 full-time equivalent jobs in the region.

As the only race club on the Coast, Mr Miller said the venue offered “enormous value” to residents.

“The thoroughbred industry as a whole is a huge employer,” he said.

“We’ve got not only people employed by the race club, but you’ve got 60 to 70 odd individual horse trainers all employing their own staff.”

Mr Miller said the club was expecting to see growth on the numbers revealed.

“With the development down this end of the Coast going ahead in leaps of bounds, we’re pretty confident that some of these figures will improve even further in the future,” he said.

“The population boom up here isn’t slowing down and where we’re geographically located, we’re really positive about the future of racing here at Corbould Park.”

The industry was rocked last week after horrific vision of the mistreatment of thoroughbreds was released.

Mr Miller said he was “appalled” by the report.

“I couldn’t really believe it, to be honest,” he said.

“It was horrible and that’s why most racing people are more shocked, if you like, than non-racing people because we’re so close to the animals and look after them so well, so to see that sort of treatment is just terrible.

“A lot of that sort of stuff is at industry level, and we’d be working with industry to make any changes or improvements that are going to assist in that way.”

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