Safety issues that led to jockeys boycotting Eagle Farm are expected to be resolved in time for racing to resume at Brisbane’s thoroughbred headquarters in mid-September.
Racing Queensland chief executive Jason Scott said he was confident that Eagle Farm would be reopened for business for a meeting on September 14.
A timeline for a return to racing was announced on Monday, more than two weeks after jockeys refused to ride in the last two races on July 20.
Their action followed a race fall that left jockey Robbie Dolan sidelined with a broken wrist.
A construction site near the 600-metre mark has been blamed for horses taking fright, especially those racing at Eagle Farm for the first time.
“We've got a solution that the jockeys are happy with, in terms of what we can do to block out the vision, and then we'll work with the trainers as well over the next few weeks,” Scott told The Straight.
“The one thing we are sure of is that all of the horses that have had problems, none of them were trained at Eagle Farm, so familiarity is obviously the key."
RQ and Brisbane Racing Club officials have been locked in talks with the Queensland Jockeys Association and the Australian Trainers Association to try to end the impasse.
Work to remove the protective meshing that covers the new building is ready to start.
Scott said taking the mesh down was a gradual process expected to last six weeks.
As part of the mitigation plan, a temporary 4m high structure with a light blue background will be erected to blend in with the sky.
“We'll run some trials and see how it works before we run any races there. It'll be thoroughly tested, but the boys in the saddle are comfortable to do this,” Scott said.
“It's all a combination of deduction and experience of the horsemen who are involved. We'll test it and see if it works.”
Warwick Barr
Horses not trained at Eagle Farm are likely to be given an opportunity to access the course proper before they are allowed to participate in races.
“We'll just work out what that looks like with the trainers, probably in the next three to four weeks,” Scott said.
Dolan was dislodged from his mount Victory Command when another runner shifted abruptly near the 600m point.
It was the latest in a series of incidents the QJA has been documenting since January.
The QJA said there had been more than a dozen separate instances of horses shying at the construction site.
Subsequent Eagle Farm meetings have been switched to Doomben as RQ released further changes to its racing schedule on Monday.
Brisbane Racing Club fixtures on August 24 and August 31 will be staged at Doomben while a midweek meeting on September 4 has been transferred to the Sunshine Coast.
Bren O’Brien
Scott said the mitigation works could impact the programming of Brisbane’s first two-year-old races for 2024/25.
“It'll become a little bit more challenging come the start of the two-year-old season,” he said.
“We'll probably schedule our first lot of two-year-olds at Doomben and Sunshine Coast.”
