Gold Coast track ready for Queensland’s biggest race day after poison debacle

It’s taken more work than usual, but the richest day on the Queensland racing calendar is set to return to the Gold Coast on Saturday.

Willa Mitchell, Katie Page-Harvey and Amy Thompson in the VIP Marquee ahead of Magic Millions race day. Picture: Luke Marsden

It’s taken more work than usual, but the richest day on the Queensland racing calendar is set to return to the Gold Coast on Saturday.

Even if the storms buzzing around the coast cause a washout, the party at the Bundall racetrack will go ahead, with contingency plans already in place in case the poison-damaged track was not repairable in time for the $14.25m race day.

Extra entertainment has been booked and organisers have promised a party, rain, hail or shine.

The race day will cap a huge week at the Magic Millions yearling sales, where a filly sold on Friday evening for $3.2m, eclipsing the previous sale record of $2.8m that had been set just a day earlier.The filly, Lot 1007, sired by Home Affairs and out of champion mare Sunlight, was sold by Coolmore Stud to top Japanese trainer Mitsu Nakauchida.

Coolmore boss Tom Magnier with Lot 1007, who sold for $3.2m. Picture by Luke Marsden.

That the races are expected to be run at the Gold Coast Turf Club at all is remarkable, given that just three days ago, a 250sqm section of turf was cut away, leaving the 500m bend looking more like a motocross track than the carefully manicured grass surface the thoroughbreds are used to.

But with an expert team called in to fix the situation, and giant 1.4-tonne rolls of turf being dropped into place on Tuesday, the unlikely has been become reality.

Police are still investigating the cause of the damage, which racing officials suspect may have been deliberate.

“You have to be ready for the unexpected,” Magic Millions co-owner Katie Page-Harvey said.

“I’ll have 25,000 people here (on Saturday). We’ve got Ronan Keating here to sing the horses across the line and Jimmy Barnes to entertain after the races. It will be a party atmosphere.”

Ms Page-Harvey , chief executive of Harvey Norman, credited the quick turnaround of the damaged track and the contingency preparations to the strong team of experts around her as well as the supportive racing industry.

“What I have loved about this week is the industry has backed us,” she said.

“Everyone has put their hand up and said, ‘we’re here for you, whatever you need’.”

The camaraderie impressed Willa Mitchell and Amy Thompson, both 21 and part of the next generation of women involved in horse racing.

Ms Mitchell, whose family own Yarraman Park Stud in the Hunter Valley and a share of super stallion I Am Invincible, said the women’s racing incentives brought in by the Magic Millions sales had convinced her of a future in the industry.

“When I was younger it was more difficult for women to get into the industry but now there’s so many more opportunities for women in racing, all over Australia,” she said.

But Ms Mitchell knows success in horse breeding and racing is built on hard work, as well as a bit of luck.

“Most people just see the success (her family) had after I Am Invincible, but I saw the huge amount of work that they put in before that,” she said.

“But it completely changed our family’s life. You never know which one could be the one.”

It was sentiment shared by Ms Thompson, whose family own Widden Stud, which sold a colt on Thursday for a sale-topping $2.8m.

“You never used to see many women at the sales, but it’s really changed and so many women are involved,” she said.

“We’re selling to so many all-female syndicates, which is really exciting from a stud perspective because you’ve got more buyers, and at the end of the day that’s what you want.”

Ms Thompson has been attending the Magic Millions auction since she was a child and recently started working in the industry as an event planner.

“I came to my first sale when I was 16 and took my first horse through the ring, it was honestly incredible,” she said.

“From then on, I became obsessed with racing because I liked to see how the horse transitioned from the preparation to the track, and which horses were successful.”

The Magic Millions yearling auction grossed more than $200m, with an average price of about $270,000.