THE IPSWICH TRACK DEBACLE CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO CONTINUE. THE DITHERING HAS TO STOP RIGHT NOW

By David Fowler | Tuesday, April 7, 2015

SPECIAL COMMENT PIECE:

This dithering over the beleaguered Ipswich track has to stop right now!

No ifs or buts. Close the track until it is fit to be a regular racing surface.

I raised the crisis of south-east Queensland tracks a month ago but not even I thought it would reach the farcical point it now sits at, plunging the state into a laughing stock.

There seemed a spark of sensibility a few weeks ago when Racing Queensland announced the April 1 meeting would be transferred from Ipswich to Doomben to allow a recovery process before a busy winter schedule.

I doubt I was alone in thinking that meant Ipswich would be rested for, say, a month to six weeks rather than push ahead with a weekly Wednesday roster.

Ipswich hasn't been right for months. Everyone knows it.

The danger spot near the home turn has seen the rail shifted more than once on raceday and pushing the rail position out and out to avoid the problem hasn't worked.

But, to the amazement of all, there was no change for April 8. It was Ipswich as scheduled and she'll be right.

Well she wasn't right and the track was still rated a heavy 10 yesterday despite no significant rain since last Thursday.

And then a later afternoon announcement is made that Ipswich is not fit to race tomorrow as it needs more time to recover.

Give me a spell!

So we are raceless again but, almost defiantly, Ipswich is scheduled again for next Wednesday and the Wednesday after.

But almost as if a crystal ball was being used, RQ has pinpointed April 29 as a day of rest for Ipswich and that meeting has been transferred to the Gold Coast.

A clear message should be resonating strongly out at the Deagon bunker.

The industry is fed up with this pussy footing behaviour around an issue they've known about for so long.

So I repeat, close Ipswich until its right to race and afford the industry some commonsense behaviour.

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Extract from Racing Queensland's 'Late Notice' Media Release today:

Racing Queensland confirms that following an inspection by stewards, the track at Ipswich TC has been deemed unsafe for racing on. Accordingly, the race meeting at Ipswich on Wednesday 8 April has been abandoned.

Consideration has been given to programming a replacement meeting, but this has not been pursued on the basis that:

1 Horses that have accepted at Ipswich TC have alternative racing opportunities within the next week & are, under the auspices of the rules, now able to be nominated for races for which acceptances have yet to close; &

2 A significant number of the acceptors at Ipswich are already either dually accepted at Beaudesert or are nominated for other engagements later this week.

*The media release was posted on the Racing Queensland website at 5.09pm. Two hours later, at the time of posting this article, the Ipswich meeting was still listed on RISA on a heavy 10 track.

David Fowler