Track repairs delay forces cancellation
DRAWN out delays to track repairs are behind the Charters Towers Amateur Race Club committee’s decision to call off their October event.
Committee president Karl Mckellar said Racing Queensland this week advised the club that the track repairs, which were slated to be finished by early August, would not be complete by the race day on October 16.
“We could have applied for a phantom race meeting, but first and foremost we’re a race club,” Mr Mckellar said.
“And hosting a phantom meeting (without local horse racing) comes with some other issues and so there wasn’t really a lot of energy from the committee about going ahead with it.”
This year the Towers Jockey Club, which owns the Charters Towers Racecourse facilities, embarked on a major renovation of the functions area that is on track to be completed on time. This was separate to a project to rejuvenate the track, which was scheduled to be done between race events.
The racetrack drainage
works and resurfacing was announced in June 2019 through the Country Racing Support Package for nonTAB clubs and has since been significantly delayed.
Racing Queensland has overseen the track repair project which began in June this year, though it has not gone as expected and requires considerable extra resources and funding to rectify problems exposed during the works.
Mr Mckellar said the Charters Towers Amateur Race Club was supportive of the upgrades.
“Nothing’s happened for
50 years or more. The work needed to be done for the welfare of the horses and the track,” he said. “We know the plan was always that the track would be ready. We knew there were issues and we were hanging off about making a decision to see if we could go ahead with our race day.
“But on Monday Racing Queensland advised the track was not going to be ready and we couldn’t go ahead with local racing.
“I’m happy a decision has been made now and not in a couple of weeks.”
A TJC spokesman said the
club was committed to working with project managers Racing Queensland to ensure the long-term viability of the track, for its use as a training hub now and into the future.
The spokesman said the club planned for Charters Towers to become a training centre for the north as well as an educational and resource centre for the racing industry.
He said research showed the racing industry in Charters Towers contributed more than $2.5m annually to the local economy and the development of such a centre would increase that figure.