Weekend Gold Coast Bulletin

12-PAGE LIFTOUT

- All the form and best bets

Extreme Choice’s win in 58.74sec might have surprised some but Newitt said on the eve of the race he felt Chautauqua was vulnerable.

“They’re all beatable,’’ Newitt said of Chautauqua.

“My bloke has come back super. He is starting to remind me a hell of a lot of Snitzel, who I won an Oakleigh Plate on a few years ago.”

Queensland idol Buffering, who was chasing his third successive Moir Stakes and fourth win overall, ran his usual honest race to finish fifth.

Buffering ($8) jumped well but couldn’t get across to the rails to take the lead.

Earlier, record-breaking trainer Darren Weir’s mare Real Love booked her spot in the Caulfield Cup with an easy win in the 2040m JRA Cup.

“That’s what we wanted to see and needed to see if she’s going to run in a race like a Caulfield Cup,” Weir said.

Real Love, ridden by Brad Rawiller, sat mid-field off a strong tempo set by Tom Melbourne and circled the field before the turn before recording a 3½ length win.

Real Love has 51.5kg in the Caulfield Cup and is No.23 in the order of entry.

A penalty for last night’s win would ensure a start. RACING Minister Grace Grace has ruled out further cuts to prizemoney despite Racing Queensland yesterday tabling a $19.9 million operating loss for the 2015-16 financial year.

That represente­d an $8.7 million increase in the operating loss from the previous financial year although is was short of the predicted $28 million loss.

The figure was inflated by $4 million due to a backdated superannua­tion fee to jockeys which is in dispute.

RQ has lodged an objection against default assessment­s relating to jockeys’ superannua­tion.

The $4 million included in the 2015-16 expenses has not been paid and may not need to be, pending the outcome of the objection.

Ms Grace said she believed the new board had the capacity to find new revenue, rather than stripping prizemoney any further than proposed in last year’s Tracking To Sustainabi­lity report.

“You can’t cut prizemoney too much because it then becomes very uncompetit­ive when you compare us to other states,” she said.

“You have to … give the board the opportunit­y to concentrat­e on working with the industry in bringing it to viability.’’

The report includes a case for greyhound participan­ts to seek more funding, as the code-by-code breakdown showed it returning a profit of $876,000 before depreciati­on. Gallops lost $11.2 million and harness lost $7.4 million, or 34 per cent of its revenue.

RQ reported cash reserves of more than $16 million last financial year after the Government underwrote the industry for $32 million to cover the cost of two years of losses.

It’s not clear when, or if, that money will be paid back to the Government.

Overall wagering revenue grew by less than $1 million in 2015-16, to $203.3 million.

UBET’s product fee fell by $2.4 million to $129.8 million.

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