Meeting to shed light on new racing rule

Queensland trainers will ask for more clarity regarding the new rule governing arrival times for runners in feature races.

New Racing Queensland board member Graham Quirk will be joined by representatives from RQ, the Queensland Racing Integrity Commission and Brisbane Racing Club at the meeting on Thursday to discuss wide-ranging issues.

One of the main points of discussion will be a rule brought in on July 1 that all runners in feature races must be on track three hours before race start time.

Three trainers have already been fined for presenting their horses late at meetings in Rockhampton and at Eagle Farm.

The rule brings Queensland into line with other jurisdictions and has been introduced for integrity reasons.

The secretary of the Queensland branch of the Australian Trainers Association Cameron Partington said the fines of $1000 with $500 suspended seemed excessive but it was understood why the rule was introduced.

“Trainers obviously want it enforced for everyone but there needs to be a little bit of flexibility,” he said.

“For instance Magic Millions day when there are nine features races in summer and it raises a lot of issues from holiday traffic to horse safety standing around in heat for hours.”

“Trainers want more clarity about exactly how flexible the rule is.”

Partington said there were many other issues to be raised at the meeting including restrictions on field sizes and overly hard racetracks.