Races lost in allocation | Sport

Tony Mcmahon | 2nd December 2008

RACING: While Queensland country racing will benefit to the tune of increased funding of $1.2 million dollars annually from next season, officials from two Capricornia race clubs - Gladstone and Thangool - believe they have been unfairly treated in losing race meetings while counterpart club, the Emerald Jockey Club (EJC) has not.

The three clubs have been upgraded to “strategic status”, whereby Queensland Racing Limited's (QRL) racing services manager Paul Brennan announced on Monday that prizemoney for every race held by those clubs would increase 50 per cent from $4000 to $6000.

However, Gladstone will drop two race meetings to eight while Thangool has lost its Melbourne Cup race day, now racing seven times annually.

Gladstone Turf Club president David Weinert, was “extremely disappointed”.

“Last season Gladstone as a training centre produced 391 runners for QRL throughout Queensland while Emerald only produced 130. Surely that has to be taken into account,” Weinert argued.

The EJC will retain it's quota of 10 race meetings which has incensed Thangool's chairman Pat Brennan to the point whereby he said “it stinks”.

“If the three clubs are regarded as strategic why should Gladstone lose two dates and us one while Emerald escapes,” he said.

“If this had to be done each club should have lost a meeting which is far fairer. I'll fight this.

“You can kick a red cattle dog in the guts all you like but you have to expect it will come back and bite and we will.”

Emerald president Leon Roberts, the chair of the Capricornia Racing Association who attended Monday's crucial Brisbane meeting, distanced himself from any controversy.

“As chairman of the EJC and Capricornia Association, I was excluded from being present at the meeting when dates were decided,” Roberts said.

“Each Association delegate who also represented a race club was asked to wait outside the room. I'm glad that happened now.”

He said while his club had not lost dates numerically, Emerald had been stripped of the big Easter Saturday date, been allocated the poor Saturday after Melbourne Cup and given a Saturday April date which clashes with Rockhampton.

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