New Racing Queensland boss Jason Scott has identified a potential solution to the stabling crisis, saying he wants to get more horses boxed across the state to sustain more racing.
Scott, who is only a few weeks into the new job, said he wants to best use Racing Queensland’s Deagon facility to its best capacity, revealing it could provide a solution.
Only 20 minutes north of Eagle Farm, Deagon currently houses a small number of stables, but Scott wants to best use the multimillion dollar space.
Many in the industry have long believed it could be transformed into a world-class training facility, and Scott agrees.
“There is a solution to it,” a frank Scott said.
“One of the solutions is Deagon, the infield there. We have started doing some stuff there.
“There is the Gold Coast (renovation) and we are building some in Townsville too.
“There is no doubt the city needs more stables.
Jason Scott wants to improve training facilities at Deagon. Picture: Josh Woning.
“We have the horse population, the numbers of races, lights in at the Gold Coast, it’s going to mean more racing.
“We need stables south of Brisbane, north of Brisbane, in Brisbane and all through the state to support that.
“I think it should be (a major training facility), the middle of the racetrack looks as if you could fit stables in and it’s something you could look at.”
Scott, who has already declared he is keen to beef-up “run of the mill” races and facilities rather than pour more money into Group 1 races to compete with New South Wales and Victoria, said there is a fine “balancing act” when it comes to looking after interstate trainers during the carnivals and meeting the needs of locals for the rest of the year.
“I spoke to the trainers about the guys from down south complaining about there not being any stables, I mentioned it to Tony Gollan and he was pretty straight in saying that they don’t look after him when he travels south,” Scott said.
“I am also cognisant of the fact we don’t have the prizemoney that Sydney and Melbourne do that brings all the horses, so we have to provide that for the trainers.
“I also don’t want to build some stables and have them empty for 44 weeks of the year. We need to find a balancing act.”