Jimmy Barnes, Ronan Keating to headline entertainment at Magic Millions race day
Irish superstar Ronan Keating and Aussie rock legend Jimmy Barnes will headline the entertainment at Saturday’s Magic Millions race day on the Gold Coast.
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Irish superstar Ronan Keating and Aussie rock legend Jimmy Barnes will headline the entertainment at Saturday’s Magic Millions race day on the Gold Coast.
Organisers revealed on Wednesday they had locked in the two stars, with Keating to perform during the day and Barnes belting out a set after the last race.
The announcement comes after Racing Queensland and Magic Millions confirmed the race day entertainment and hospitality would remain on the Glitter Strip, even if the meeting had to move to Eagle Farm after the Gold Coast track was mysteriously poisoned.
Six leading jockeys will test gallop the track on Thursday morning after urgent repairs were carried out, with Eagle Farm the back-up plan if they deem it unsafe.
But Racing Queensland boss Jason Scott said on Wednesday he was “99 per cent” confident the $14.5m meeting would stay put on the Coast after Australia’s top trainer Chris Waller inspected the Bundall track and gave it a ringing endorsement.
Waller said he was “very impressed” with the repairs and predicted it would give horses and jockeys “full confidence”.
Magic Millions co-owner Katie Page-Harvey said about 25,000 race fans were expected at the Gold Coast on Saturday, “regardless of outcome”.
“It will be amazing, the entertainment will be amazing, even if we’re racing at Eagle Farm,” she said.
“There is not one person that will cancel their ticket, I promise.”
Ms Page-Harvey said the 11th hour salvage of the Magic Millions twilight meeting – with racing transferred to the Sunshine Coast but hospitality and entertainment including performances by Amy Shark and Daryl Braithwaite remain on the Gold Coast – showed “we can do anything”.”
“(Husband) Gerry (Harvey) and I love these challenges,” she said.
“You can see that we just get on with it and produce a great product and it’s really important that we do this for the industry.”
Keating, who also performed at last year’s Melbourne Cup, recently revealed he and his family planned to spend more time in Australia.
“We have re-evaluated life a little bit and the plan is to spend more time here in Australia and near family, we love being here,” he said.
Originally published as Jimmy Barnes, Ronan Keating to headline entertainment at Magic Millions race day
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