Magic Millions race on the cards

AS THE finishing touches are put on a new-look summer carnival, Racing Queensland is planning to unveil a bulked-up winter program next year.

Proposed changes include new races and the possibility of featuring a new race date among the feature days.

Racing Queensland chief executive Brendan Parnell said it would not be a winter carnival overhaul, but one with “refinements” in which the twoyear-old series would be boosted, a new-look staying series unveiled and the potential for new races.

“When you look back at recent times with Eagle Farm being out of play and before that, downgrades for the Brisbane Cup (2007) and BRC Sires (2006), it’s been a hard decade,” he said.

“The focus for me in the first 12 months was fixing the foundation for racing’s viability.

“As grassroots prizemoney has been addressed, it’s now we need to turn our mind to innovation and locking in a future carnival, which will be in May and June, not the start of April as it has been.”

It seems certain the Queensland Derby will move from Stradbroke to Kingsford Smith Cup day, paving the way for a richer O’Shea Stakes, where three-year-olds will be encouraged to take on Doomben Cup horses.

But the most controversial proposal is one that includes a Gold Coast meeting around the Magic Millions National Sale. Whether that means a Saturday in between the Brisbane Racing Club’s Group 1 meetings, or potentially a The Valley-style Friday night card, remains unclear.

Parnell did not comment beyond confirming he wanted the carnival to link more closely with the National Sale.

“Part of the reform (requested by government) is to be more commercial and work with bodies like tourism and events,” he said.

“You’ve got that amazing horse sale on the Gold Coast where hundreds of millions of dollars of horse flesh are traded in Queensland and you wouldn’t know it from a racing perspective.”