BURDEKIN Race Club President, Ricky Gudge has expressed his disappointment at the lack of Racing Queensland (RQ) grants being awarded to the local club after the finalisation of the last round of grants.
“It pains me to say that we missed out again,” he commented.
“After earlier correspondence with RQ, I was quietly confident that we would receive something, but it wasn’t to be”.
After conducting a meeting in December 2022 on behalf of the Charters Towers Club, who were unable to race on their track at the time, Mr Gudge announced that the Burdekin Club would again be conducting a Charters Towers meeting in December, 2023.
“If I had known the results of the last round of grants before-hand, the decision may have been very much different,” he told club members.
The grants come as part of ‘Country Club Asset Funding”. Following the expiry of the Country Racing Program Deed, Racing Queensland committed to providing $3 million per year for country racing club infrastructure repairs, maintenance and asset replenishment/replacement.
Mr Gudge told the August meeting that their Burdekin Club was proactive “and it seems, because we are financial, that is to our detriment”.
“Just imagine what would be in place here with that sort of monetary injection,” he said.
Several clubs in the Leichhardt Region, which also includes the Burdekin Race Club, were successful in receiving grants towards projects at their facilities.
The Burdekin Club has plans for major projects to enhance their facility in Home Hill and has been seeking grant money from Racing Queensland so that they can proceed with the work.
Racing Queensland’s representative in North Queensland, Warren Williams recently inspected the Home Hill track and “gave it a big thumbs up,” Mr Gudge said.
His parting comment was that he was going to suggest that more race dates should be allocated to Home Hill because of the standard of the track.
