12 hours ago
The lights will be back on at Toowoomba's Clifford Park racecourse on Friday, July 4
The lights will be back on at Toowoomba Turf Club on Friday and no-one is happier than its chief executive Grant Sheather following a 'significant' drop in revenue for the turf club.
Night racing was initially scheduled to return to Toowoomba on Saturday but it would have clashed with the $1 million Group 1 Brisbane Cup greyhounds final at the new Q22 Parklands at Ipswich.
The Clifford Park track was plunged into darkness on March 15 when the lights failed midway during a race after a contactor in a distribution board burnt out.
Jockey Cobi Vitler later told Racenet he feared his mount would clip heels in the ensuing chaos as the five riders in the small field opted to continue racing.
The last two races of the meeting were abandoned and an investigation was launched into the power failure, fast-tracking an upgrade of the outdated electrical system.
Sheather said the club had been through a tumultuous period without any upgraded lights to help ignite its revenue streams.
'Primarily it's been about the juggling of sponsors' expectations and hospitality bookings that we had previously,' he said.
'It's been quite enjoyable racing during the day, especially during the winter months, but there's just no opportunity to get revenue outside of that hospitality which we traditionally have in the past.
'With nearly 700 horses in work, that costs a lot of money so we need to make a lot of money from hospitality to pay for the black hole which is training.'
Sheather said having Saturday racing during the day had forced Toowoomba race meetings from Sky Racing 1 to the broadcaster's secondary channel, which had hit wagering revenue hard.
'You could say the wagering is only half (when on Sky Racing 2) so I think Racing Queensland has been looking forward to us getting back on Sky Racing 1 too,' he said.
Sheather said the lights were fixed soon after the March blackout but industry participants such as the Queensland Racing Integrity Commission and the Australian Jockeys' Association wanted to ensure the electrical system was ultra reliable.
'The last three months that's what Racing Queensland and the (Toowoomba) club have been doing – investing in the infrastructure to make sure it is reliable,' he said.
'We've got a few other plans to make the lights are more reliable and reduce any risk, which were identified as part of the engineer's report, but that's something the club will do internally.'
Sheather did not wish to divulge Toowoomba Turf Club's financial loss over the past three months or the cost of the light infrastructure upgrade but said both were 'significant'.
He said Racing Queensland had helped fund a new synthetic crossing that would be used for the first time on Friday night.
Toowoomba was the first racing club to host meetings under lights in 1992.
