Howzat! Eye watering cost revealed for Eagle Farm sight screen

Racenet has the first pictures and video of the Eagle Farm “sight screen” which has come at an extraordinary cost.

It’s the $360,000 sight screen that racing officials are praying is the magic solution to the Eagle Farm fiasco.

Much like cricket commentary legend Tony Greig used to do with his famous pitch inspections, Racenet visited Eagle Farm on Friday to inspect the new trackside hoardings covered in mesh which are meant to stop horses shying at a building on the point of the turn.

The exclusive pictures and video show Eagle Farm as it has never been seen before.

First pictures of the new “sight screen” at Eagle Farm, which is meant to stop horses shying at a building at the point of the home turn. Picture: Ben Dorries

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Starting at the 600m mark, the new temporary sight screen is nearing completion ahead of a set of crucial trials on the Eagle Farm course proper next Thursday.

All going well, racing will return to Eagle Farm on September 14 for the first time since jockeys dramatically withdrew their services following a Robbie Dolan fall on July 20.

Jockeys felt the Dolan fall was the latest in a series of instances where there had been falls or racing incidents as the result of some horses shying at the construction of a new building.

Since then, the state’s premier racetrack has laid dormant for racing as meetings have been transferred to other courses.

🎥 | @bendorries76 inspected the new sight screen at Eagle Farm which is being constructed at an extraordinary cost 😲

STORY: https://t.co/EGhMvcsU60pic.twitter.com/BogEQahRbA

— Racenet (@RacenetTweets) August 30, 2024

Racenet has been told the cost of the “sight screen” and associated works is roughly $360,000 – a bill which Racing Queensland is likely to have to foot.

As well as the $360,000 of industry money spent on the sight screen, the absence of Eagle Farm has created a race scheduling nightmare and a hit to wagering turnover in Queensland.

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Racing Queensland will have to foot the estimated $360,000 bill for the sight screen.

So will the sight screen work?

The proof could be in the pudding as soon as next week when jockeys return to the Eagle Farm course proper for a set of official barrier trials.

The trial morning will have eight heats of 1000m which will be restricted to horses which are three years old and over and are not trained at Eagle Farm and/or have not previously raced at Eagle Farm.

That is one of the conditions given the jockeys feel the horses who have been shying at the building are horses that are not trained at Eagle Farm and therefore not familiar with the track.

“A condition of nomination will be that trainers agree that it will be mandatory for horses (pre-trial) to be cantered to the start and turned around to get a sight of the construction area/tower,” a message to participants reads.

“The logistics associated with this will be determined and communicated to participants well in advance of the meeting.”

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Workers on the new sight screen at Eagle Farm on Friday.

Dolan, who returns to riding at Doomben on Saturday after breaking his hand in the July 20 fall, told Racenet this week that he wished horses could talk.

“I don’t know to be honest if the building caused my fall, nobody really knows why the horses are shying,“ Dolan said.

“But it is probably too much of a coincidence with all the other incidents that had happened in the months beforehand.

“Nobody can speak horse language.

“If I could speak horse, I would ask them and find out.”

Originally published as Howzat! Eye watering cost revealed for Eagle Farm sight screen