Racing officials are confident the rich Jewel Day on the Gold Coast will go ahead on Saturday

Racing officials are confident the rescheduled Jewel Day on the Gold Coast will go ahead on Saturday, despite widespread chaos in the aftermath of ex-cyclone Alfred.

Gold Coast suffers in the aftermath from ex Cyclone Alfred, as it still hits the coast with strong winds and rain. Siganto Dve at Oxenford claims a few more cars. Picture Glenn Hampson

Queensland racing officials are confident the rescheduled Jewel Day on the Gold Coast will go ahead on Saturday, despite widespread chaos in the aftermath of ex-cyclone Alfred.

The $2 million meeting was shifted to this Saturday as South East Queensland and northern NSW braced for the impact of Alfred, which crossed the coast last Saturday morning as a Category 1 cyclone.

Gale-force winds up to 100km/hr and heavy rain have swept through South East Queensland over the weekend, bringing down trees and causing flash flooding and power outages in many areas.

READ: Capalaba Greyhounds feel full force of flooding event

Heavy rain continued on Sunday, with 350mm in total being dumped on the Gold Coast racetrack alone since last Wednesday.

Gold Coast Turf Club boss Steve Lines said on Sunday morning that a perimeter fence had been damaged, a section of the running rail had come down and a corporate room flooded at the Bundall racecourse.

But he was confident that Jewel Day, which features two $500,000 races for Queensland-bred two-year-old and three-year-old horses, would proceed on Saturday as a twilight meeting.

“It’ll obviously be weather-dependent, like everything,” Lines said.

“A bit of rail was down, a couple of fence-lines, but nothing significant. One of the rooms got a fair bit of carpet damage but we’ll clean that up.

“For the amount of wind we’ve had and the cyclone itself, which was pretty power-packed, I think we’ll all come out of the wash smelling pretty good.

Patrons leave the washed out Magic Millions meeting in January Picture: Richard Walker

“If the forecast does ease off like they’re saying then we should be good.”

Capalaba Greyhound Racing Club didn’t fare so well, with the track completely under water, while Albion Park is under threat from flooding as the nearby Breakfast Creek rises fast.

Eagle Farm’s running rail was left twisted from the gale-force winds, and several trees had fallen around Brisbane’s premier racetrack.

“There were no comments made about trees damaging infrastructure so I think it’s just a mess right now,” Racing Queensland acting CEO Lachlan Murray said on Sunday.

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“I’d say Tuesday’s meeting at (Eagle Farm) is highly unlikely.

“Jewel Day should be fine at this stage. I don’t think the Gold Coast has had the volume of rain that we’ve had in Brisbane.

“But it could’ve been a lot worse. Seeing all the photos coming through, it’s been pretty scary out there.”

Wednesday’s meeting at Doomben is likely to be run at Eagle Farm, which has better drainage, with RQ expected to extend the deadline for acceptances.

The Brisbane forecast for Monday is a high chance of showers, with up to 10mm of rain, and then just 4mm on Tuesday.

The Capalaba greyhound track totally submerged in flood water

“The priority is the welfare of the horses in the in-field at Eagle Farm and the safety of staff,” Brisbane Racing Club chief executive Karl deKroo said.

“Then the next component will be how quickly we can get back racing.”

Trainer Lee Freedman, who has about 30 horses in his Gold Coast stables, said it had been a tough few days.

“It’s had a major impact down here because we haven’t been able to work horses for three days,” he said.

“I went down early this morning and my team has got the horses on a walker, which is pleasing to see, so they were getting some exercise at least.

“It’s definitely had an impact and it will continue to do so because in the next week the clean-up will be massive.

“It’s not just the cyclone, it’s all the cleaning up and repairing that’s got to be done afterwards.”

Originally published as Racing officials are confident the rich Jewel Day on the Gold Coast will go ahead on Saturday