HITTING PAY DIRT
WHY MERGER HAD TO HAPPEN:
TRAINER Kelvin Hickmott says the merger between Beaudesert Race Club and the Gold Coast Turf Club needed to happen in order to save the health and fitness of horses based at the country precinct.
Hickmott has spent the past decade working his horses at the Beaudesert track and watching the dedicated members of the club’s board put everything into keeping it afloat.
Members voted 32-1 in favour of a merger with Gold Coast on Monday in the biggest decision in the club’s 139year history.
Today’s Beaudesert Cup race day, one of the club’s biggest meetings of the season, will be the first under Gold Coast management.
Hickmott, a son of twotime Gold Coast trainers premiership winner Lloyd Hickmott, hoped the financial stability gained from linking with the GCTC would enable the BRC to help improve the facilities.
He said the lack of an irrigation system had affected the track and put his horses at risk of injury.
“(The merger) was a good idea. It needed to happen,” Hickmott said.
“Beaudesert has been struggling for quite a while.
“The irrigation system since the floods has been buggered so we can’t get proper water on the sand track.
“When we can’t gallop on the grass the sand is just too heavy most times to gallop on as well.
“They can’t get an even amount of water on it so a lot of trainers won’t gallop their horses on it and so they go to the races only having them three-quarters fit.
“We had the track in trouble with the stewards a couple of months ago and we couldn’t use the grass for a few weeks.
“There is big chance of breaking them down. Everything else is all right.
“To be able to work them properly and have a good galloping surface to get your horse fit will be good.
“The track is the main concern. The Gold Coast will probably send some better equipment and it probably needs a new irrigation system.”
Hickmott, 62, has been involved in racing for almost 30 years and trained at the Gold Coast when he started his own stable.
Before that, Hickmott worked as a foreman for his late father Lloyd and also spent time training in Gympie before opening his Beaudesert base.
(THE MERGER) WAS A GOOD IDEA. IT NEEDED TO HAPPEN.
TRAINER KELVIN HICKMOTT