THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - SCTC TURNS 30; RQ'S 'BUSINESS AS USUAL' CLAIM QUESTIONED

By Graham Potter | Sunday, July 26, 2015

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily.

The Sunshine Coast Turf Club has come a long way since it hosted its first meeting on July 25, 1985 on a track forged from grazing land.

Corbould Park is in fact named after a grazier, Edward Corbould, who once owned the land in question. This land was purchased by the Caloundra City Council in 1979. Then, eight years ago in July 2007, the freehold title was purchased by the Sunshine Coast Racing Unit Trust.

Yesterday’s meeting marked the thirtieth anniversary of racing at Corbould Park and it is interesting to revisit the major developments that have occurred at the track, particularly in relatively recent times.

The opening of an alternative, synthetic track (set inside the turf track) in April 2008, the installation of 960 lights placed on 40 towers in late 2008 and early 2009 to enable night racing, the establishment of a stable complex which can house 256 horses with the Corbould Park precinct itself ... these were all major milestones in the history of the club.

While not all of these projects received universal acclaim ... some were actually more than a touch controversial ... the fact is they are all in place now and, as such, have all contributed in their own way to the establishment of a really fine racing and training facility.

And then there is the jewel in the Sunshine Coast crown, the turf track which is loudly praised by many jockeys and trainers as currently being easily the best racing surface in South East Queensland (and one of the best in Australia).

This, in spite of the fact that the Sunshine Coast track staff have time and time again this season had to manage an abnormal workload due to the excessive wear and tear brought about on most other tracks since the closure of Eagle Farm.

So, all credit to the team at the Sunshine Coast. Thirty years down ... and more to come ... since the first horse ever to salute at Corbould Park made its way back to the winners’ enclosure.

Any idea which horse that was?

Records show it was a horse called Mister Omega ridden by R Quinton and trained by Brian Tattam.

If you can remember that win you are doing very well!

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The postponement of the Racing Queensland Awards evening by the interim management at Racing Queensland has, predictably and justifiably, already been roundly lambasted by a cross section of racing stakeholders.

This decision flies in the face of the same management’s professed standpoint, which they put into play on a regular basis, that for next six months it will be ‘business as usual’ for racing in Queensland.

Clearly decisions such as this one affecting the Awards night show that is not the case.

While Awards nights are obviously not the overriding concern with regard to the big picture in racing, the ‘falsehood’ that this latest decision appears to expose is clearly of more concern than the postponement itself.

It is either business as usual or not.

Sooner or later racing management has to learn that it simply doesn’t pay to take stakeholders for fools.

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