Gold Coast Turf Club vandalism: Damaged area ‘somewhat’ correlated to club’s spray boom width
CCTV has turned up no leads and recovered spray nozzles are of uncertain evidentiary value – so what happened at the Gold Coast Turf Club? Read the latest update from police.
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Queensland Police say despite scouring CCTV footage, not only from Gold Coast Turf Club but also surrounding businesses and residences, they have been unable to identify any suspects who may have vandalised the track ahead of the Magic Millions race.
The damaged section of turf, measuring about 16m by 20m, was reported by the club to police on January 3, although investigators believe the damage may have been caused several days earlier.
On Monday, Superintendent Brett Jackson said preliminary testing of the site revealed the presence of the chemical glyphosate, the sort present in common weedkillers such as Roundup.
“Whether it’s a domestically sourced product like Roundup or if it’s commercial grade, that’s still to be determined through the testing,” he said.
Police confirmed a trio of spray nozzles had been found at the site, which may or may not have been used in the incident, but it was not immediately clear to police whether they had any evidentiary value.
“Further investigation will be needed to determine whether they were used in the offence,” Superintendent Jackson said.
Surveillance footage was unable to produce any leads.
“Police have scoured CCTV not only from the turf club itself, but from surrounding businesses and homes,” Superintendent Jackson said.
“At this stage, we’ve [been] unable to identify any suspects, however investigations will continue.”
Asked whether the damaged section of turf had any correlation to the machinery used by the club itself, Superintendent Jackson confirmed there was “somewhat” of a match.
“The dimension of the turf that was affected is 16 metres wide and spray boom at the turf club is around eight metres, so there is somewhat of a correlation,” he said.
“We leave an open mind to these investigations, whether it can be some sort of fault in equipment, whether it could be a staff issue or if in fact it was someone trying to damage that, that’s all part of the investigation.”
Superintendent Jackson said the turf club had “engaged with outside providers” to beef up its security and CCTV coverage.
The Magic Millions racing was subsequently washed out (but for three races) and will be re-run under lights on Friday.
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