Club on track for glory

With the riches of the Cairns Cup Carnival rapidly approaching, the Cairns Jockey Club are over the moon with the state of their Cannon Park track. CJC general manager John Cameron (above) believes the lastest stage in remediation work at the track has given them more certainty during the wet season. Cameron pointed to Cannon Park losing up to six race meetings a year in recent years but so far in 2018, the club has not lost a race.

WITH the riches of the Cairns Cup Carnival rapidly approaching, the Cairns Jockey Club are over the moon with the state of their Cannon Park track.

After first being held over two weekends in 2017, the Cairns Cup Carnival will again be split over two Saturdays, run on the 4th and 11th of August later this year.

CJC general manager John Cameron believes the latest stage in remediation work at the track has given them more certainty during the wet season.

Cameron pointed to Cannon Park losing up to six race meetings a year in recent years but so far in 2018 the club has not lost a race and none of the races were beyond a soft track.

Racing Queensland implemented a herringbone pattern drainage strategy as part of the remediation works, which resulted in drains being laid laterally in-line with the track and across the track.

“Cairns normally receives around two metres of rain a year and that can be devastating on our race schedule,” Cameron said.

“With the new drains we have witnessed a 200 per cent improvement.

“The grass is greener, the root system is going down further and the track is performing exceptionally well.

“It’s a massive improvement and I put that down to the infrastructure team from Racing Queensland, the Racing Infrastructure Fund (RIF) funding and the design work by Labosport.

“This work by RQ has been critical for the club because all but two of our races are TAB which means the city and all racing stakeholders get the full benefit of a track that is fit for purpose.”

Stage two of the project is now well underway with the purchase of a sand spreader for the club, also funded by the RIF.

Meanwhile, Golden Depart shot to equal leader in the 2018 Magic Millions FNQ Up and Coming Stayers series after winning Round 2 at Mount Garnet.

Golden Depart, trained by John Manzelmann and ridden by Peter Cullen, beat the Michael McLellan-trained The Principal by a nose with Beach Head filling third place.

The third round of the series will be run at Gordonvale this coming Saturday with a Benchmark 65 1800m race.