Revealed: Major Magic Millions update looms as Gold Coast Turf Club track relaid
Organisers of Queensland’s richest race day, the $14.5m Magic Millions have outlined where it will be held on Saturday as Jimmy Barnes and Ronan Keating sets are locked in. LATEST DETAILS.
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UPDATE: Jockeys will test out the relaid Gold Coast Turf Club’s damaged track on Thursday morning in what will be the decisive moment for whether it retains Queensland’s richest race day.
Regardless, the Magic Millions have confirmed both Aussie rocker Jimmy Barnes and Irish pop royalty Ronan Keating will play sets at the Gold Coast Turf Club on Saturday.
It is not Keating’s first brush with the Magic Millions - he once played at the carnival beachfront launch party under a marquee on the Surfers Paradise beachfront.
Their performances will follow Daryl Braithwaite and Amy Shark playing the first ever twilight meeting last Saturday, when entertainment went ahead at the Gold Coast Turf Club but the racing was shifted to the Sunshine Coast after track damage.
Racing Queensland has confirmed on Wednesday that senior jockeys will gallop on the course proper on Thursday morning to help determine which venue will host The Star Gold Coast Magic Millions Raceday.
In a statement, Racing Queensland said stakeholders were planning at this stage to proceed with the 10-race card - which includes the $3m Two Year Old Classic and $3m Three Year Old Guineas - at the Aquis Park Gold Coast Turf Club in Bundall.
“Remediation” to the Gold Coast Turf Club course proper was scheduled to be completed today, the statement said.
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Should the course proper require further time to consolidate, the Magic Millions would be transferred to Eagle Farm including an owners’ marquee for connections involved in the feature meeting, it added.
The Gold Coast Turf Club would proceed on Saturday as a Magic Millions live site inclusive of functions and hospitality.
Racing Queensland added should Eagle Farm be required to host the Magic Millions, its existing eight-race card will be transferred to the Ipswich Turf Club.
EARLIER: Police have seized what the Gold Coast Turf Club claims are rogue spray nozzles in their probe into damage to a key section of track that has put hosting Queensland’s richest race day at risk.
The progress by police came as the Magic Millions organisers revealed a major update would be revealed on Wednesday morning, with co-owners Katie Page and Gerry Harvey fronting media with Racing Queensland CEO Jason Scott.
It comes after Ms Page said on Tuesday morning she was 95 per cent confident the Magic Millions races would be held on the Gold Coast on Saturday.
It emerged this week she had also visited alternative host Eagle Farm, saying on Tuesday she “always has a plan B”.
Officials are racing the clock to repair the Bundall track in time for the $14.5m Magic Millions race day. Last weekend’s first ever Magic Millions twilight meeting had to be relocated to the Sunshine Coast after the damage.
Gold Coast Turf Club chairman Brett Cook said on Tuesday items including three spray nozzles and mixing equipment had been found near the damaged area on the home turn, along with footprints near a canal adjoining the racecourse.
“We’re awaiting an independent report from leading agronomist Craig Easton, who has been up to take samples of the damaged turf, but it’s looking more and more a case of vandalism,” Mr Cook said.
“We know the nozzles aren’t ours because they’re plastic and we use aluminium. Craig has seen a number of similar cases in the past and spoken with the investigating police.
“If it does turn out to be a deliberate act, we’re very disappointed with a narrative that has come out suggesting it was some sort of stuff-up on our part.”
hief Superintendent Craig Hanlon has confirmed police have seized what the turf club is calling rogue spray nozzles in its investigation into the turf club track damage.
Ms Page, speaking at the Magic Millions beach run on Tuesday morning, said she was “95 per cent sure” Saturday’s racing will be at Bundall.
“I always have Plan B, as you know, but it’s going to be spectacular. Whatever we have to do to make Saturday a success, we will do it,” she said. “I look at last Saturday [Magic Millions twilight race] as a practice.”
While there are thunderstorms forecast for this weekend Ms Page didn’t voice any concerns over the rain.
“Whatever happens, it will be a great day, we’ll deliver for everyone and there is nothing like it,” she said.
“[Magic Millions] is iconic around the world. Gerry [Harvey] and I have got a business in the UK, and the team sent a photo of all the snow, ice and winds over there, and they’re all watching the Magic Millions. That’s the whole point, this goes around the world. That’s what it’s about, to showcase the Gold Coast, Queensland and Australia to the rest of the world.”
Mayor Tom Tate said questions would need to be asked about the cause of the damage to the Turf Club track, which remains under investigation.
“It is a concern ahead of one of our biggest events, the investigation is ongoing so I cannot speculate on what has happened but I can speculate the magic will happen on Saturday,” he said. “Questions have to be asked so we can learn from it and whatever it is, we have to make sure it does not happen again but the thing about the Gold Coast is that when we get knocked down, we get right back up again.
“It will happen on the Gold Coast, they won’t have to make the call (to relocate the races).
“We will have to up security and (if it was anti-racing activists), the message is that these sorts of things don’t endear us to your cause, if anything it hardens people against it because it is not the fair Aussie way of doing things.
“Go and protest, don’t damage property, that would be my message should it be someone like that.”
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