Club to show off big spend
THE Ipswich Turf Club showcases the bulk of its $24 million redevelopment at Saturday’s Eye Liner Stakes meeting, when the new Events and Entertainment Centre will host its first raceday function.
The club will welcome 120 members into the function centre, while the refurbished Eye Liner Lounge has been reserved for 100 owners.
ITC general manager Brett Kitching said outside spaces allow for up to 1500 other racegoers to attend.
“With the COVID situation, it’s still quite difficult to manage, but we are just looking forward to getting people back this weekend,” Kitching said.
The $24 million project, which began almost three years ago, is nearing completion, with the next phase being the demolition of the existing race-day stalls.
Kitching hopes to be given approval by Racing Queensland and QRIC today to use the new race-day horse stalls for the first time on Saturday.
There are plans to hold a grand opening of the new facilities at the meeting scheduled for September 19.
“We are expecting early September to be the finish date of the project, so that date would be perfect timing, even though it’s only a provincial meeting,” Kitching said.
“We don’t know what the COVID restrictions will be at that time, but we’ll do what we’re allowed under the rules.”
In addition to the new facilities, Ipswich has been racing on a refurbished surface.
Major works were carried out from October last year and there has been 11 meetings held at the venue since it returned in April.
Kitching said that after some initial teething problems with drainage at the 1150m point, feedback from jockeys had been positive.
“We were able to improve the cushion on top and that has worked a treat. Jockeys have consistently said the cushion is back,” he said.
“It’s racing beautifully and doesn’t have that hard surface.
“The problem at the 1150m point was that two trenches were back-filled with sand and water wasn’t draining off.
“They were dug back out and replaced (in May) and then last month we replaced the sand channels with turf blocks from the chutes and outside of track and that has hardened it up a lot better.
“The other issue was horses taking left-hand turns after winning post.
“The solution to that was to put some moveable rail guiding them around that bend.”
THE Gold Coast Turf Club is gearing up for a big day to farewell 10-time jockeys’ premiership winner Dan Griffin on Saturday.
T-shirts with the number “10” on the back have been done to mark the occasion and the final race on the card will be in honour of the rider.