By Casey OÇonnor
Racing Minister Grace Grace was a welcome visitor at the Warwick races on Saturday, opening the major upgrades at the course.
The minister and was also on-hand to present the trophies to the connections of Warwick Cup winner Military Kings and said she was impressed with the Warwick race day and the facilities at Allman Park.
“It is wonderful to be here and see the work the club, in conjunction with Queensland Racing has undertaken to upgrade the on course facilities,” the minister said.
“The committee has been working hard in recent months since the earlier flooding this year to repair the track and look to have done a great job.”
In addition to talking to the Warwick committee she took the opportunity to speak with Basil Nolan of Raheen Stud who is the President of Thoroughbred Breeders Australia and Jeff Kruger owner of Lyndhurst Stud.
Ms Grace was accompanied by several other senior members of Racing Queensland.
President of the Warwick Turf Club, Barry Burgess said they were pleased to have the minister at the track.
“It is wonderful to have the Racing Minister here and also the representatives of Queensland Racing,” he said.
“With the assistance and guidance of Queensland Racing the club will be embarking on long range three stage plan to upgrade the drainage at Allman Park, and an upgrade the training track and the main track. “It is great to have some of the people we will be working with here today.”
The President had lots of sleepless nights in the week leading up to the race meeting with plans up in the air as late as last Tuesday.
Burgess joked on Saturday that he had bruised knees from all his praying to the Weather and Racing gods after the club rolled the dice and decided to proceed with the meeting earlier in the week.
Burgess and his committee would therefore have welcomed the track assessment of Cup winning jockey Steph Lacy who said the track raced very fairly throughout the day.
The Racing Minister officially opened the almost $1million infrastructure upgrade that has been undertake at the track which includes the two tier Barry Jones Broadcast Box.
Long serving committeeman John Gilbert was left speechless when he was presented with Life Membership of the club during the official proceedings and received his Life Members Jacket from the racing minister.
Unfortunately, the racing minister who has been to several country race meetings in the past three weeks said previous commitments will prevent her from attending this weekend’s Stanthorpe Cup meeting.
