Qld winter carnival wagering hopes ‘washed away' by Group 1 Derby day weather
Racing Queensland CEO Lachlan Murray said that overall winter carnival turnover had dipped from $384m to $357m (a seven per cent decline) but on a per race basis it was a 2.7 per cent drop-off seeing as not as many races were staged this year.
Group 1 Queensland Derby Day on May 31 was a drama for wagering numbers with the second half of the card rescheduled due to bad weather conditions, including the Fred Best Classic being moved to a Wednesday midweek affair at Doomben.
'On the wagering front, our hopes of eclipsing last year's numbers washed away, quite literally, when we had to reschedule the second half of the Queensland Derby Day card to midweek and a Super Saturday in conjunction with the Oaks,' Murray said.
'We dropped $20 million in forecast turnover on those days alone.
'When we normalise the activity, stripping out Derby Day and Oaks Day, this year's Carnival was narrowly up on last year's carnival.
'On a per race basis, we were up 1.5 per cent so we're starting to see a few green shoots which we're hoping will hold during the new racing season.'
The Derby Day situation wasn't ideal for wagering and weather is out of the control of racing authorities.
However there were reasons for positivity.
Wagering turnover on Caloundra Cup Day ($31.1m) was the biggest improver of the carnival as it was up 37.4 per cent, admittedly with an extra race than the year before.
After many feature Sunshine Coast race meetings in recent years have been hit by bad weather, the sun finally shone on the day and the crowd of more than 6000 was up more than 50 per cent.
Murray pledged that RQ would review the performance of the winter carnival.
'The final month of the carnival was also our best from an attendance standpoint – the Ipswich Cup and Caloundra Cup both eclipsed last year's figures – which showed that people were happy to vote with their feet when the sun came out,' Murray said.
'There's a lot to be positive about, but we always want it to be bigger and better, so we will review what worked and what didn't and we will look to make next year's carnival even better.
'Overall, it was another exciting and strong edition of the Queensland winter carnival.'
The strongest wagering in the winter carnival was on Stradbroke Day ($55.2m), Queensland Oaks Day ($51.4m), Doomben Cup Day ($44.7m), Doomben 10,000 Day ($39m) and Tatt's Tiara Day ($37.7m).
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