BRC suspends new membership

Brisbane Race Club chairman Neville Bell has denied suggestions the club has suspended new membership applications in an attempt to ward off a coup against its board.

The BRC has told its members no new applications will be accepted in the short term while problems with Eagle Farm racetrack are sorted out.

Eagle Farm is closed indefinitely and 16 of the BRC’s Saturday meetings will be run at Doomben while five others will be held at the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and Ipswich.

There have been rumours in Brisbane that a challenge to the board could be held at the annual general meeting in September.

Some of the names being mentioned in the challenge are no longer BRC members or have never been BRC members.

Bell said the claim the BRC was stalling memberships to thwart a coup was ridiculous.

“We are trying to help our members who complained that they were getting only half the meetings they should,” Bell said.

“We are looking at ways to give them something extra and we don’t want to sign new members when we don’t know how many meetings we will have for the year.”

“In no way does it have anything to do with any coup of the like. The suspension of new members is only in the short term and as soon as we know what is going on with Eagle Farm we can reopen them.”

“The industry should be pulling together and most people are doing that. These rumours do no-one any good.”