The short-sighted gamble by having night racing on the Gold Coast on Fridays

The State Government and Racing Queensland will be taking a big gamble by promoting Friday night racing at the Gold Coast Turf Club, warns veteran MP Ray Stevens.

THE state government and Racing Queensland is taking a big gamble by promoting Friday night racing at the Gold Coast Turf Club, veteran MP Ray Stevens warns.

A former shadow minister for racing with decades of involvement at the turf club, Mr Stevens has fired a political shot at Labor’s $31m upgrade at Bundall, which includes a tunnel under the racetrack, an all-weather racing track and lights for night racing.

Gold Coast Turf Club night racing.

“Good luck Gold Coast Turf Club with that for, as most dodgy operators infamously say, ‘the cheque is in the mail’,” the Mermaid Beach MP told Parliament.

“It is the issue of the Friday night racing that concerns me most, as anyone with a modicum of racing knowledge would know, if you race Friday night, you won’t be racing on Saturday afternoon.

“As a Gold Coast Turf Club board member for 14 years, I know that the Gold Coast Turf Club generates its well-known public attendance on Saturday afternoons primarily because of the metropolitan racing in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.”

Mr Stevens predicts any major changes from the current scenario will bring a serious drop in attendance and fundraising capacity of the GCTC.

“Our motto used to be ‘Racing Every Saturday in Paradise’ and that branding was nearly as good as ‘Beautiful One Day, Perfect the Next’,” he said.

Night racing planned for the Gold Coast.

“Racing Queensland is obsessed with the notion that its betting turnover will be massively increased if it races on Friday nights at the Gold Coast in conjunction with Mooney Valley in Melbourne and Canterbury in Sydney.

“Both of those venues conduct their meetings with little public attendance on Friday

nights and at the Gold Coast it will be even worse.”

Turf club chairman Brett Cook said the club was conscious that its current business model of racing on Saturdays was hugely successful and would take “an evolutionary view to migrate some of its business to night racing”.

The nights where racing would occur “are up for discussion”. Lights will be introduced at the club during 2024 and 2025.

“The original estimation would be a maximum of 10 night meetings programmed over different days of the week,” Mr Cook said.

Gold Coast Turf Club chairman Brett Cook. Photo by Richard Gosling

“Apart from some Friday nights the club would also take into consideration the opportunity to race on Wednesday evenings which could be aligned to Happy Valley in Hong Kong and the Saturday twilights which would run in conjunction with the current Toowoomba program.”

Mr Cook believes these type of new opportunities will enhance betting turnover, leading to better contributions from the racing industry to the body and government.

The club would monitor the impact of hours for staffers and those involving in racing.

“The vision for night racing across Australia is strongly supported by the relevant bodies and would be further enhanced in Queensland with consideration for lights at additional tracks,” he said.

“Ipswich in particular who have just had a facility upgrade and want to race Friday nights and Townsville because of it central location in north Queensland are obvious additional opportunities to consider.”

Mr Stevens said the turf club would be competing on Friday nights with the “array of restaurants, nightclubs and pokie palaces for the younger patrons”.

“And for the over 50s, which are the majority of Gold Coast members, they will be tucked up in bed.”

Ray Stevens — “this is a serious negative”. (AAP Image/Dan Peled)

“I can’t stress enough how I believe this is a serious negative for the future of the Gold Coast Turf Club, which is a venue and organisation extremely dear to my heart.

“I understand the logic behind the other proposed asset improvements for the club and if that government cheque ever arrives, I will look forward as a member of the club for 40 years to the opening of those new facilities.

Another shot of night racing

“Friday night racing in reality is a turn-off for public attendance and industry

participants preparing at 3am Saturday for their big money day on Saturday afternoon.”

LAST WEEK:

THE council has given a green light to night racing at the Bundall track despite some concerns about the impact on nearby residents.

The Gold Coast Turf Club can now plan ahead for Friday night racing and a late race during the Magic Millions.

A report to Thursday’s planning committee meeting reveals council in June last year received a request for a code assessable development permit for broadcasting lights and night racing.

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The development was assessed and approved because all light structures were no greater than the height limits at the site, a council report said.

Poles were be no greater than 15m in height, and where the structures were setback further than 100m from the homes on nearby Crombie Avenue, those lights could be no higher than 30m.

Plans show 15 light poles about 14.9m high about 50m from northern properties, and 39 poles about 29.9m in height more than 100m from properties.

Where night lights will be placed and nearby homes.

The light structures were outward facing toward the north, east and south boundaries.

“The primary purpose of operating the night racing is to televise the races domestically and internationally,” the council officer’s report said.

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The Turf Club had advised council that patrons would vacate the track by 11pm, and it did not expect large crowd numbers because the main aim of night races was for broadcasting.

The council received four objections and one letter of support for the development.

The recommendations of the acoustic report include an acoustic barrier to limit the impacts to residents on Crombie Avenue.

Councillors during a brief debate at planning acknowledged the Turf Club had worked to limit the light spill from the towers. The application had unanimous support in a vote by councillors and will now be considered by full council.