By Jordan Gerrans
President Mark Spagnolo has flagged the Innisfail Turf Club’s intentions to become a major player on the North Queensland TAB racing circuit following their recent track upgrades.
Based an hour south of Cairns, Innisfail’s Pease Park was awarded close to $500,000 from the Palaszczuk Government's Country Racing Program to upgrade their facilities and returned to racing earlier in August with their developed racing surface.
Stables from as far south as Mackay travelled to Innisfail for the race day and Spagnolo hopes their improved facilities and surface will help lessen the load on clubs like Cairns and Townsville.
“The fact that we may get more TAB meetings in the future, it is exciting, we are upgrading our jockeys rooms, improving our running rail and have upgraded the track,” Spagnolo said.
“We are in a strategic area here at Innisfail, trainers and jockeys do not have to travel to the Tablelands or Cairns if they are coming from Charters Towers, Bowen or the Burdekin – it is an easier drive here.
“It is a lot closer for them, we are more central here at Innisfail, and we think we have a good system here with good facilities.”
Innisfail picked up a meeting from Cairns in late 2020 when Cannon Park were unable to race as they were finalising works of their own on their track.
Spagnolo and his committee applauded the efforts of The Palaszczuk Government, through the Country Racing Program, to continue to support regional clubs across the Sunshine State.
Experienced Innisfail-based trainer Stephen Potiris believes his home track can attract gallopers from the top stables from around North Queensland.
“All the horses that we race in the north, they mostly come from the same pool of people,” Stephen said.
“It does not matter if you come from Cairns, Townsville and even sometimes Mackay and Rockhampton – you will get the same horses at whichever track on TAB race days.
“It is a good track, it is a fair track and holds a lot of water, which is really good, I think they have done a good job with the drainage and hopefully we can get a few more TAB meetings into the future.”
Innisfail held their first TAB meeting for more than a decade in November of last year and the upgraded track could well provide further opportunities into the future after mainly racing on the non-TAB circuit in recent years.
Spagnolo, a long-time administrator and owner in North Queensland, cannot remember Innisfail’s track, made up of buffalo and couch grass, being in better condition than it is now, describing it as “superb”.
“A lot of work has gone into it and the new sections are brilliant and the old sections are coming good too, with fertilizer and general maintenance, it looks great,” Spagnolo said.
“We have had a lot of work done where the stewards focused on in years past that saw us lose meetings because of the wet areas of the track. It all looks fabulous.”