IPSWICH – The Ipswich Turf Club has Friday on its mind and is determined to ditch its nice guy image to make sure it gets what it really wants – a return to Friday racing and night racing under lights.

As it argues its case, the club is set to take on what it sees as prejudicial treatment from Racing Queensland, which sets the state’s racing program.

At the club’s annual general meeting on Wednesday, ITC chairman Wayne Patch delivered his annual report to members for the 20th time.

With its Ipswich Entertainment and Events Centre (IEEC) up and running, the club is about more than racing but needs it more than ever to survive and thrive.

The club’s full position will be set out in a master plan, expected to be finished by the end of this year, setting out the club’s vision for its future.    

While Mr Patch was happy to report to members at the AGM the club had recorded an operational profit despite tough times in the past year, not all the news was so rosy.

He said the inconsistency of race day allocation was significantly impeding the club’s capacity to market racing and improve the use of the club’s facilities.

“This has a detrimental impact on a wide range of racing, sponsorship and financial opportunities for the club,” Mr Patch said.
“All other race clubs in SEQ are allocated over 90 percent of their race dates on either one or two consistent days per week throughout the year whereas the ITC is allocated an inconsistent assortment of dates spread across a variety of five days.

“Gold Coast race every Saturday, both the Brisbane tracks race either Saturday or Wednesday - that’s all they race - Sunshine Coast race effectively every Sunday, plus about 15 Fridays under lights, Toowoomba is every Saturday night – perfect set-up, everyone knows when and where they are racing.

“Ipswich? No-one knows when we’re racing.

“Every other south-east community has certainlty over when they race.

“The Ipswich and West Moreton region is the only one that doesn’t.

“Why aren’t we entitled to the same treatment at Brisbane, the Gold and Sunshine Coasts and Toowoomba?”

He said a few years ago the ITC became known as the Friday Club with racing over 40 Fridays each year.

Bundamba was the place to be after knock-off time for the week for a few beers and bets.

“It worked a treat. We marketed it well and our turnover was great,” he said.

“That consistent race day scheduling has been lost under the current RQ (Racing Queensland) administration with the ITC now having the most ad hoc race day allocations in SEQ.

“In spite of our ongoing protests, Racing Queensland continues to ignore the prejudicial impact that its current programming strategy continues to have on the ITC.

“It appears to me that there is a distinct prejudice against the Ipswich Turf Club and the community of Ipswich.

“We get the same level of funding as the clubs that race the same day each week but we don’t get the same marketing opportunities.”

For many years, Ipswich was happy to be called an industry club, known for taking race dates that no-one else wanted and turning them into a success.

The Labour Day meeting was a perfect example. Now they believe that reputation has come back to bite them.

“There is no doubt in my mind we have been too willing to accept the ‘industry club’ tag and the time has come when we’re not prepared to do that anymore,” Mr Patch said.

“We’re industry players no doubt but we do everything we can to support them and they do nothing to support us in return.”

When Eagle Farm in Brisbane was shut down for major repairs in 2017, as an industry club the ITC put its hand up to take its mid-week meetings, mainly Wednesdays and Thursdays.

“But they never came back,” Mr Patch said.

“We believe - and we’ve got data we’re willing to argue about - that our turnover here is as good as anyone.

“Friday is our day. We want it back. When it was taken away there was no science to it and there’s no science to why they won’t give it back to us.

“Give us the Fridays, we turnover well and it gives us a great opportunity both from a marketing perspective, turnover perspective and a consistency perspective.

“When we had Fridays, we had the whole area out the front [of the track] full of people every week.

“We’re good with the other south east clubs; there’s no animosity. Anything I say is not proposing anything to the detriment of their programs.”

The racing program for this year is done and the next one is expected to be finalised by the start of March next year.

Mr Patch said CEO Tim Dunn has been directed to draw up Ipswich’s preferred program and essentially dare Racing Queensland to tear it down.

“Tim is about to prepare the Ipswich Turf Club version of what we believe the Queensland racing calendar should look like for next year and it’s going to be a submission to them and if they’re going to reject it we’re going to ask them for reasons why they’re going to reject it,” he said.

“We believe - and the other clubs agree - that we should be able to work out the dates for ourselves and if there is any conflict, the adjudicator can make the decision.

“We’re all confident that we can actually do that. Racing Queensland for some reason don’t want that sort of input from race clubs.

“The last five years they’ve promised that but never delivered.

“We’re not being unreasonable here. We have a great reputation for being industry players, we’re serious about racing in Queensland and we’ve just been trodden on too often.”

In 2006 ITC proposed the unification of the three codes of racing at Bundamba as well as a commercial development to self-fund it but it became a political football.

“I’ve been saying this for decades that my sole objective in life is to get off the Racing Queensland teat,” Mr Patch said.

“The less I have to do with them the better, apart from their purely regulatory role. I’m hoping that one day we don’t need any funding from them.

“But it appears to me they are doing everything they can to keep us on the teat.”

Having negotiated behind the scenes until now, the club is now going public and will be looking for support from Ipswich City Council, state MPs and the community.

“You know you’ve got to go hard to get anything in Ipswich,” he said.

“There’s nothing different about this but it’s just the consistent battle. Following the recent announcement of the approval of lights for the Gold Coast, Ipswich will now be the only SEQ provincial track not able to race under lights.

“We have the unenviable record of having the most frequent race day cancellations/alterations through the RQ heat policy which could easily be resolved through later racing times.

“Ipswich has clear logistical benefits for stakeholders in terms of proximity and traffic accessibility to all large horse populations in SEQ, outstanding spectator and entertainment facilities to attract patrons in the fastest growing region in SEQ and of course a great racing surface on a compact track that is cheaper to light than alternative venues.

“Our race fields, betting turnover and participant/stakeholder support is also unquestionable so whether it be logistics, patronage growth, implementation cost or animal welfare and safety Ipswich has every box ticked when racing under lights strategies are formulated and we will continue to publicly push the logic of those arguments as forcefully as we can.

“I’m not actually prepared to sit back and just – without any form of compensation or equitable treatment – be the fall guy again.

“Currently it’s a great facility; we’re appreciative of that but there seems to be this lingering issue regardless of how strong our case is, we don’t get favourable treatment.

“It’s a very simple strategic picture we painted decades ago.

“We’re getting there with the infrastructure, the track’s in great order now, we’ve got great stabling, a lovely venue here; the precinct is as schmick as anything in racing in Queensland.

“Our objective now is to have that facility used when people want to come.”