Eagle Farm sight screen to stay up for foreseeable future as controversial construction continues

The Eagle Farm sight screen will remain in place into the New Year but there are plans for it to be removed early in 2025.

The sight screen will stay up at Eagle Farm until at least March of next year. Picture: Supplied

The $360,000 sight screen at Eagle Farm will stay up until at least March after racing officials and the jockeys association struck an agreement recently.

Scaffolding around the controversial building on the point of the home turn, which jockeys claimed horses were shying at, has slowly come down and is expected to be fully removed in the first quarter of 2025.

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Jockeys refused to race at Eagle Farm until something was done to mitigate risk around the issue when they walked away from a race meeting in July, saying there were more than a dozen instances of horses shying at the construction site.

Racing Queensland, along with stewards and the jockeys association agreed to construct a site screen covering up the construction, along with cantering horses past the 600m mark prior to every race as a result.

With uncertainty from developers Mirvac over the exact finishing date for the new apartment building, Racing Queensland chief executive Jason Scott said the hoarding would stay up for as long as it was required.

The blue sight screen blocking out the view of the construction site will stay up until March. Picture: Supplied

“We are happy to keep the screen up for as long as the construction is going on,” he said.

“It has had the desired effect.

“From my point of view, it doesn’t make any sense to mess with the status quo and we will leave it there until all of the scaffolding and everything attached to the building is gone.”

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Once the hoarding is finally removed, a set of trials will need to be completed at Eagle Farm prior to racing there again.

A set of trials were conducted there in September for non-Eagle Farm trained horses before it was given the green light by jockeys to return to racing.

It is expected the pre-race cantering past the 600m mark process will remain in place for the foreseeable future as it has been seen as the most successful mitigation point for the issue.

Originally published as Eagle Farm sight screen to stay up for foreseeable future as controversial construction continues