Winter carnivals gone in rebuilt program

WINTER carnivals for the three codes of racing will be abandoned as Racing Queensland looks to build a war chest for what it expects to be torrid times for the industry.

RQ has moved to extend racing’s lifeline during the Covid-19 crisis by dividing the states into five different regions, where horses, trainers and jockeys have to stay and race in just one region.

The announcements come as the Australian racing industry waits on results of top jockey Mark Zahra, who travelled on a plane on March 12 which was carrying a passenger who later tested positive to coronavirus.

Zahra acted within the guidelines set out at that time and has done nothing wrong, but because there are riders in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth who shared a jockeys’ room with him subsequent to that, the test is of vital importance.

If racing is permitted to continue, the state’s 100-plus racetracks will be diminished to just 16. The plan is set to start next week.

The six major racetracks in southeast Queensland will make up two of the zones, with Doomben, Eagle Farm and Caloundra forming a ‘Metro

North’ region and the Gold Coast, Ipswich and Toowoomba being categorised as ‘Metro South-West’. There will also be regions set aside for Central Queensland (including Rockhampton and Mackay), Darling Downs and southeast Coast (including Roma and Charleville) and Northern and North West (including Townsville and Cairns).

Greyhound racing will be broken up into four regions.

Harness racing in Queensland is already confined to the southeast of the state.

It comes after RQ rejected a proposal by the Brisbane Racing Club to quarantine Eagle

Farm horses for two weeks.

It is understood racing has support from within the Prime Minister’s office, but the message is that it needs to tighten its restrictions if it’s to continue during the country’s lockdown.

A new program was published yesterday, with winter carnival features set aside for 2020 in a move that RQ hopes will allow the industry to accrue up to $9 million in a hardship and sustainability fund.

“By taking this measure, it gives our participants a possible opportunity to race,” Racing Queensland chief executive Brendan Parnell said.