Racing Queensland has suspended a raft of meetings in South East Queensland ahead of the expected arrival of Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
In order to ensure the safety of racing animals and participants, meetings across all codes have been impacted, with a variety of changes required to the racing calendar.
This includes the $2 million Queensland Jewel Raceday which will be postponed a week and will be staged as a twilight meeting on Saturday, March 15.
The existing Eagle Farm meeting will be maintained on the same day but will be run as an eight-race card.
Updates include:
Thoroughbreds
- Wednesday, March 5 – Sunshine Coast (cancelled)
- Friday, March 7 – Doomben (transferred to Eagle Farm on Tuesday, March 11)
- Saturday, March 8 – Gold Coast (transferred to Saturday, March 15), Ipswich (transferred to Thursday, March 13 replacing Beaudesert meeting), Esk (cancelled)
- Sunday, March 9 – Sunshine Coast (cancelled)
*The Toowoomba Turf Club meeting scheduled for Saturday, March 8 will proceed as programmed. As a result of the meeting changes, further revision will be required for race programs and deadlines with RQ to advise stakeholders of these requirements.
Greyhounds
- Wednesday, March 5 – Albion Park and Capalaba (cancelled)
- Thursday, March 6 – Albion Park and Ipswich (cancelled)
- Friday, March 7 – Ipswich (cancelled)
- Saturday, March 8 – Ipswich (cancelled)
- Sunday, March 9 – Albion Park and Capalaba (cancelled)
- Monday, March 10 – Albion Park (cancelled)
Harness
- Wednesday, March 5 – Redcliffe (cancelled)
- Thursday, March 6 – Redcliffe (cancelled)
- Friday, March 7 – Albion Park* (cancelled)
- Saturday, March 8 – Albion Park (cancelled)
- Monday, March 10 – Redcliffe (cancelled)
*The round one heats for the Jim McNeil Trotting Championship programmed for this Friday will be rescheduled to Friday, March 14. Fields and barriers to remain as drawn.
Additionally, QRIC has published an industry notice on its website with advice on preparing racing animals for the threat of cyclones. Click here to read more.
Further information and helpful resources on Tropical Cyclone Alfred can be found here: