MASSIVE ENTRIES FOR AQUIS PARK MEETING UNDER ZONE PLAN
THE Gold Coast Turf Club has received a massive 227 nominations for its first meeting to be run under Racing Queensland’s new zoning system.
The total is second only to the $10 million Magic Millions race day for a meeting at Aquis Park in the past 12 months.
The Gold Coast will hold the first race meeting for the new Metro South-West zone – which also includes Ipswich and Toowoomba – on Friday.
Mackay today hosts the first of Queensland’s new zoned meetings as the industry takes steps to ensure it can continue racing during the COVID-19 restrictions.
Today’s meeting is open to trainers located in Zone 6, which includes Rockhampton, Yeppoon and Mackay.
Racing continues with no crowds and strict biosecurity restrictions in place at race meetings and in stables.
Queensland’s top metropolitan jockeys have been divided into two divisions under the concept.
Riders were asked to nominate a region in which they wanted to compete and they will be restricted to those areas from today.
Jockeys who did not select a zone were allocated one in accordance with their address.
There are 46 riders nominated for Metro SouthWest and 57 for Metro North, which covers Eagle Farm, Doomben and Sunshine Coast.
Gold Coast comeback jockey Michael Cahill has elected to ride in Metro SouthWest and will be joined by leading hoops Ryan Maloney and Matt McGillivray.
The Metro North region is headlined by star apprentices Baylee Nothdurft and Stephanie Thornton and also features Robbie Fradd, James Orman and Brad Stewart.
Nothdurft leads Fradd by five in the 2019-20 metropolitan jockeys premiership with Thornton third.