A large section of the turf at Gold Coast has been discoloured

There is a section of turf at about the 500m mark at Gold Coast which measures about 25m X 10m that has become seriously discoloured this week. There is the possibility that the turf has been wilfully destroyed with the police investigating.

Just a week ahead of the start of the Magic Millions Carnival at Gold Coast, a part of the track has become unsafe for racing. The plans are to dig that part of the track up and replace it with turf that is already part of the site. The wait is for the machinery coming in to do the work while the time for the new turf to bed in could be an issue for the meeting next Saturday.

Police investigating the potential of foul play

Samples of the track have been taken away for testing with the belief that the track has been poisoned. Malicious damage is believed to be the cause with a section of turf becoming badly discoloured this week.

A couple of horses were given a gallop over the part of the track that was affected. Subsequently, the meeting this weekend was moved from the Gold Coast track to Sunshine Coast.

The police have asked for anyone with information to come forward. The chances of that are probably slim but it might be that an animal rights group will come forward at some point to claim the damage was part of a campaign against the sport.

The start of the Magic Millions Festival in doubt at Gold Coast

The Magic Millions Festival is a string of very popular race days on the betting sites. With just a week today until the opening fixture, it will be a race against time for the track to make it back into racing condition.

Heavy machinery is being brought in to dig out the section of turf that has been damaged. There will be turf taken from elsewhere on the track to fill in the gap that has been left. To get that turf to take root and be safe to race on within just a few days is going to be a tough task for the track staff.

The work that is done will need to be tested by both the stewards and jockeys before any racing takes place. It seems likely that a couple of horses will be tasked with testing the track again as they were this week.

Eagle Farm is on standby to take over the main races on the card in case Gold Coast is not able to fulfil the fixture. Both Eagle Farm and Sunshine Coast had their own track problems in 2024 as Queensland struggled.

Magic Millions 2023 was abandoned because of the weather

It was only two years ago that the meeting had to be cancelled after rainfall on top of a sprinkler issue made the track unsafe to race on. There was only 14mm of rain but a broken sprinkler had already made a section of the track sodden before the rain made things worse.

Gold Coast has not had a lot of luck with this meeting in recent years, though it would be wise not to be going down a conspiracy rabbit hole when it comes to the track issues. Storm Boy was a superb winner of the main event in 2024 and hopefully, the track will be fit for racing next weekend.

Summary

At present, it is all supposition as we await the results of the tests on the turf. It certainly appears that it may have been a malicious attack on the racecourse but we await the results of the turf analysis.