Eagle Farm track concerns

The Brisbane Racing Club allowed 16 horses to work on the course proper yesterday morning but the feedback was not positive.

Horses were getting into the surface like they would a heavy track.

BRC chairman Neville Bell said he was not at the session but he had been told the track was playing like it was heavy.

“I will get a full report in the morning and assess what is further needed to be done. At this stage the meeting will be at Eagle Farm on Saturday,” Bell said.

“We want to do the right thing by the punting and racegoing public but we also have to consider looking after the track.”

The Eagle Farm meeting on Saturday will feature the Group 2 Victory Stakes (1200m) and Group 3 Gunsynd Classic (1600m).

The meeting also marks the return of star two-year-old Ours To Keep, who takes the first step in what trainer Chris Munce thinks will be a careerdefining winter carnival campaign when he contests the Dalrello Stakes (1200m).

The Listed race has attracted 21 entries including another leading two-year-old contender for the winter, the Kelso Wood-trained Snitzkraft.

It will be Ours To Keep’s first start since he finished ninth behind Houtzen in the Magic Millions 2YO Classic (1200m) at the Gold Coast on January 14.

He won his first three race starts including the Group 3 B.J. McLachlan Stakes and the Listed Phelan Ready Stakes in Brisbane.

Munce was far from unhappy with Ours To Keep’s run in the Magic Millions but quickly elected to scrap any ideas of a Sydney autumn carnival campaign.

“Things didn’t go his way in the Magic Millions. But he had won more than $266,000 for us already so it was reasonable to give him a break with the winter in mind,” Munce said.

Ours To Keep showed he had come back well when he won a Deagon trial last week and Munce said the Dalrello should give him a good guide as to where the horse was at.