Turf guru Graeme Colless confident Saturday’s $14.5m Magic Millions meeting will proceed at the Gold Coast

Evergreen Turf supremo Graeme Colless weighs in with his thoughts on the Gold Coast track in its race against time to be ready for Saturday’s Magic Millions meeting.

Graeme Colless has been flown in to help fix the Gold Coast track before the Magic Millions. Picture: Brett Costello

Evergreen Turf supremo Graeme Colless is no stranger to rescuing marquee events.

In 2019, on the eve of the New Year’s Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Colless and his team were parachuted in to bring the iconic venue’s surface up to scratch after a series of U2 concerts in the lead up had left it in disrepair.

And in 2022 they were at it again when front and centre in bringing a section of the Flemington track back from the brink following an act of vandalism during the Melbourne Cup carnival.

• ‘Suspicious items’ found near scene of Gold Coast track poisoning drama

This week, Colless and his expert team are plying their trade on the Gold Coast in a bid to salvage Saturday’s lucrative $14.5m Magic Millions meeting, following the much publicised poisoning of a section of the track surface which forced last week’s meeting to be shifted to the Sunshine Coast.

The damaged section of the Gold Coast track. Picture: Supplied

And in the greatest endorsement yet, turf whisperer Colless, who answered an SOS call from Queensland officials at the weekend, has declared he is now “90 per cent confident” that the Gold Coast track would be fit to race on Saturday.

Speaking to Racenet on Tuesday, Colless said the turf replacement had got to the point where jockeys would be able to test it in gallops on Thursday morning which will ultimately decide the future of the meeting.

“Racing Queensland rang me on Friday evening and I had to get some of my staff back from holidays and fly in others from Melbourne,” Colless said.

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“There was also gear from all around Sydney that we needed to pick up, then we got up to the Gold Coast on Sunday and did an inspection.

“We found some grass on the track that we are going to replace from the B-Grass onto the course proper and we have got specialised machines to do that.

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“The machines that we use for stadiums, they cut (turf) rolls of about nine square metres and then they are all hydraulically pushed over by another machine that we have got.

“All things being equal, I am giving them a 90 per cent chance of racing at the Gold Coast on Saturday.”

Late on Tuesday, News Corp revealed that it had become increasingly likely that the track poisoning at the Gold Coast was a deliberate act by vandals.

Suspicious items, including weed spray nozzles, along with footprints near a canal which adjoins the racecourse are said to be forming part of the Police investigation.

Originally published as Turf guru Graeme Colless confident Saturday’s $14.5m Magic Millions meeting will proceed at the Gold Coast