Qld winter carnival wagering hopes ‘washed away' by Group 1 Derby day weather
Racing Queensland CEO Lachlan Murray said that overall winter carnival turnover had dipped from $384m to $357m (a seven per cent decline) but on a per race basis it was a 2.7 per cent drop-off seeing as not as many races were staged this year.
Group 1 Queensland Derby Day on May 31 was a drama for wagering numbers with the second half of the card rescheduled due to bad weather conditions, including the Fred Best Classic being moved to a Wednesday midweek affair at Doomben.
'On the wagering front, our hopes of eclipsing last year's numbers washed away, quite literally, when we had to reschedule the second half of the Queensland Derby Day card to midweek and a Super Saturday in conjunction with the Oaks,' Murray said.
'We dropped $20 million in forecast turnover on those days alone.
'When we normalise the activity, stripping out Derby Day and Oaks Day, this year's Carnival was narrowly up on last year's carnival.
'On a per race basis, we were up 1.5 per cent so we're starting to see a few green shoots which we're hoping will hold during the new racing season.'
The Derby Day situation wasn't ideal for wagering and weather is out of the control of racing authorities.
However there were reasons for positivity.
Wagering turnover on Caloundra Cup Day ($31.1m) was the biggest improver of the carnival as it was up 37.4 per cent, admittedly with an extra race than the year before.
After many feature Sunshine Coast race meetings in recent years have been hit by bad weather, the sun finally shone on the day and the crowd of more than 6000 was up more than 50 per cent.
Murray pledged that RQ would review the performance of the winter carnival.
'The final month of the carnival was also our best from an attendance standpoint – the Ipswich Cup and Caloundra Cup both eclipsed last year's figures – which showed that people were happy to vote with their feet when the sun came out,' Murray said.
'There's a lot to be positive about, but we always want it to be bigger and better, so we will review what worked and what didn't and we will look to make next year's carnival even better.
'Overall, it was another exciting and strong edition of the Queensland winter carnival.'
The strongest wagering in the winter carnival was on Stradbroke Day ($55.2m), Queensland Oaks Day ($51.4m), Doomben Cup Day ($44.7m), Doomben 10,000 Day ($39m) and Tatt's Tiara Day ($37.7m).
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
BTN Newsbreak 23/07/2025
AI SCAMS First up, AI scams. Experts say they're on the rise, and one CEO is particularly worried. This is Open AI's CEO, you know the company behind ChatGPT, and today, he shared his fears about the future of AI scams. Look, scams aren't a new problem. Just last year, Australians lost more than two billion dollars to them. And new data shows the Australian Financial Complaints Authority has received more than 100,000 complaints for a second year running. But thanks to AI, scams are only getting more sophisticated and believable. Experts say the best way to beat AI scams is critical thinking. Asking yourself: does this actually seem like the person I think it is? Does the scenario seem realistic? Families are also being encouraged to create a safeword, a word you can ask someone to say when you're unsure about their identity. UNESCO US President Donald Trump has decided to pull the US out of UNESCO, the UN's culture and education agency. According to the White House, UNESCO's values are at odds with President Trump's America First Policy. It's not the first time he's done it. Mr Trump originally pulled the US out of UNESCO back in 2017 during his first term as president. But a couple of years ago, that decision was reversed by Joe Biden, who was the president at the time. UNESCO's director general says while she's upset by the decision, she was kind of expecting it. HECS DEBT Now that parliament's returned everyone is talking about Labor's election promise to reduce student loans. Yep, today legislation has been introduced to parliament to reduce student debt. It was one of Labor's big promises ahead of this years election proposing a one-off, 20% reduction to all outstanding loans. Now, if it passes about 3 million Aussies who have debts from studying at university, or debts from doing things like apprenticeships will have their debt reduced! You see, here in Australia, it costs money to go to university but Aussie students can apply for HELP, which lets you borrow money from the government and pay off your debt bit by bit once you start earning a certain amount of money. But over the years, the cost of uni has gone up, making student debts more and more expensive so there have been a lot of calls for a reduction of student debt like this one. Meanwhile others aren't too happy with the idea because it'll cost the budget 16 billion dollars. Money that they reckon should be spent elsewhere. NIGERIA ROBOTS First up, to a robotics competition in Nigeria. Where young inventors are showing off robots they've designed to solve specific problems. Among the inventions was a land mine detecting robot, a tractor slash irrigator for farmers, and a prototype fire truck dubbed the "firebot". SHIPWRECK Now to a partial shipwreck on a remote beach in Scotland. A local schoolboy discovered it last year, and it's taken researchers until now to work out – it's actually a 250 year old wreck from an old navy boat turned whaling boat called the Earl of Chatham. BUTTER SCULPTURES And finally to these sculptures made entirely out of butter at the Ohio State fair in the US. The butter cow is a bit of a tradition here with the butter being donated by dairy farmers, and according to organisers it'll all be recycled once the fair is over.
Daily Telegraph
3 hours ago
- Daily Telegraph
AFL news: Melbourne Demon Steven May learns his fate for his divisive bump on Carlton forward Francis Evans
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL. Followed categories will be added to My News. Steven May has learned his fate for his hit on Carlton forward Francis Evans that fiercely divided the AFL fraternity and led to a hugely drawn out deliberation. May's act left 23-year-old Evans bloodied with a broken nose and a displaced tooth, graded by the Match Review Officer as careless conduct, severe impact and high contact. Referred directly to the Tribunal, the AFL was seeking a three-match ban for the incident and after taking well over an hour to make a call, the charge was upheld and that is the suspension he received. FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every match of every round in the 2025 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE in 4K, with no ad-breaks during play. New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1. The Demons entered a not guilty plea to the rough conduct charge and wanted the case thrown out, listing nine reasons for that stance, including May's height, the unexpected bounce of the ball and the fact he didn't jump from the ground. They argued May's contact was not unreasonable as he accelerated towards a footy that was in dispute and the defender believed he would take possession first. Francis Evans was left in a bad way after the Steven May hit. Photos:The AFL argued 33-year-old May had breached his duty of care, however, and they got their way, with May to serve three matches on the sideline. Fox Footy's David Zita, who was at the hearing, reported May telling the Tribunal: 'It was sort of skimming across the surface, so I definitely thought it was my ball, given how the previous couple of bounces went. 'I was surprised Evans got to the ball first and did not try to bump him, maintaining the original line. 'I attempted to slow down, but it was too late. 'I just can't believe I didn't take possession. I thought I did everything right, so I'm just a bit shocked.' May was keen to see a replay. (Photo by Morgan Hancock/AFL Photos/via Getty Images) Evans at least had a smile on his face in the rooms after Carlton's win. Picture: Michael Klein The Demons were expected to strongly lean on the case of Fremantle captain Alex Pearce, who initially copped a three-game ban for his collision that concussed Port Adelaide's Darcy Byrne-Jones back in May. In that incident, the defender had his suspension overturned in what was widely considered a crucial test case for players contesting the ball in collisions which cause concussion. The verdict means May season is all but over, now missing games against St Kilda, West Coast and the Western Bulldogs, returning for the round 23 clash with the Hawks. There were a huge range of opinions over May's incident, which came in the third quarter of the Blues' eight-point win. Port Adelaide veteran Travis Boak conceded the outcome for his former teammate Evans was a terrible look, but wondered what else May could have done. 'In my view it's a footy act, in terms of he looked like he had a play on the ball,' he said on AFL 360. 'He went for the ball and the last minute his decision is 'oh no, I can't get the ball' and sort of braced and that's where the impact came from. 'I don't think there's much he can do here, he had a play for the ball until the very last second and has to make a split decision almost to protect himself. 'Unfortunately 'Frankie' gets hit in the head and the outcome looks really bad, there's a lot of blood and concussion and we don't want to see that. 'But it's a decision made at the last second so I'm not sure what else he could've done.' Evans is surrounded by teammates after the collision. (Photo by) West Coast premiership player Will Schofield told AFL Tonight: 'Maybe we see a one-week penalty because of the outcome, but I don't think this is an act we need out of the game. 'I thought he did everything right until he didn't and those sorts of accidental outcomes, I don't think we should be penalising.' Pies great Nathan Buckley took a different stance, telling Fox Footy: 'I don't know whether our game is capable of allowing that anymore.' Many fans took the same side as Boak, but there was still a cross section of opinions on social media. One wrote on X: 'Should be nothing, stop encouraging the continued destruction of the game.' Another tweeted: 'That is 1000% a footy action, contesting the football at all times. It's not even a bump.' A third offered: 'There is no duty of care towards the player and May contacts the head.' A fourth wrote: 'S**t that's terrible, should be 5 weeks.' In the lead-up to the hearing, journalist Jon Ralph told Fox Footy's Midweek Tackle his intel regarding Melbourne's likely defence. 'They (the Demons) are convinced that Steven May will get off and they think that the Alex Pearce case is the key,' he said. 'Melbourne believes the fact that it was a marking contest for Alex Pearce, rather than a groundball, actually helps them. Because with Pearce, the ball was in the air, it wasn't moving (bouncing unpredictably) there. Another angle of the May incident. Photo: Fox Sports 'With May, on a slippery night, the ball bounced and bounced, and they felt it was absolutely going to bounce towards May. 'So, in that case, Tribunal chairman Jeff Gleeson, when he dismissed the Pearce case, said 'it has never been the Tribunal's position that a concussion inevitably results in a careless finding'. 'Adrian Anderson, the Melbourne advocate, will go to work on that statement. Pearce's testimony was absolutely compelling, so Steven May … he will tell the truth. '(Melbourne's) position is that it would actually add confusion and indeed chaos if he was actually suspended, because we would be totally confused about where we're at, when we got a bit of clarity with Alex Pearce a few weeks back.' In the end, the AFL got its way and May will be out for three weeks. – with Fox Sports Originally published as AFL star Steven May learns his fate for divisive Carlton act
News.com.au
4 hours ago
- News.com.au
PM will honour a big election promise as he moves to tackle cost of living
Anthony Albanese will move to freeze beer taxes on Thursday honouring his election pitch to tackle the cost of living. The Prime Minister confirmed during the election that 'we will freeze the indexation on draught beer excise for two years' in what he described as a win for beer drinkers and hospitality businesses. With schooners and pints tracking closer to $15 and $20 in major cities, publicans have expressed fears the steep prices are driving customers away. It follows warnings that a half of the cost of a $59.99 slab of Coopers Pale Ale was going to the taxman. On Thursday, the Albanese Labor Government will table tariff proposals to stop the excise and customs duty on beer from increasing from 1 August. The Albanese government has confirmed it will amend the legislation to temporarily pause the indexation on excise and customs duty. The pause on indexation for excise and customs duty will be in place for two years from 1 August 2025. The Albanese Government said that the excise and customs tariff proposals tabled in Parliament will be ratified by primary legislation to be introduced in coming months. However, the tariff proposal on Thursday will stop the price of beer increasing due to indexation until that freeze is legislated. 'Continuing to deliver cost of living relief to Australians is our number one priority,'' Mr Albanese told 'Freezing the excise on draught beer is a common sense measure that is good for beer drinkers, good for brewers and good for pubs.' Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government remained focused on easing the cost of living for Australians. 'This will help take a bit of pressure off beer drinkers, brewers and bars,'' he said. 'Whether it's a tax cut for every taxpayer, help with energy bills, or the new relief that's rolling out this month like higher wages for award workers, we're doing everything we responsibly can to help with the cost of living.' understands the cost to the budget in tax revenue foregone will be $95 million over four years. But it's not all beer. It needs to be coming off tap in a licensed hospitality venue, so only schooners and pints of beer from your local watering hole will be blessed with a tax freeze. Those who prefer buying their beer, or any other alcohol, from the bottle-O can expect prices to keep rising. Last year Anthony Albanese said cutting beer taxes wasn't a priority for his government. 'We are not looking at that at the moment, but obviously in the lead-up to budgets, you have submissions and I'm sure that there'll be submissions along a whole range of ways,' he told 3AW. 'One of the things that we have to do though, is look at ways where we provide cost of living support, while putting downward pressure on inflation.' Health Minister Mark Butler was singing the same tune back then, insisting that the government's focus was on 'cheaper medicines, not beer'. Nationals leader's lonely call for action David Littleproud faced a backlash last year from senior Liberals after floating the prospect of a beer tax relief because the price was 'hitting a tipping point.' 'I'm part of the shadow expenditure review committee and our final taxation policy has not been determined,' he said. 'That will be determined by the National Party and the Liberal Party. That's why we'll be running the ruler over this. 'When we determine the taxation policy we'll take to the next election, it'll be a Coalition policy.' But the big idea was slammed down by the opposition treasury spokesman Angus Taylor. 'The starting point to reducing the pressure of indexation is to get inflation down,' Mr Taylor said. Opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume also wasn't a big fan. 'I always like the idea of free beer. But, unfortunately, that might not be the policy slogan that you'll be seeing us going into the election with,' she said. Ahead of the announcement, the Australian Hotels Association CEO Stephen Ferguson noted that beer and spirits tax quietly goes up twice a year every year and complained that the Government's only response is to refer pubs to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. 'Australia's beer tax is already the third highest in the OECD. There's also $38 tax on a $60 bottle of whisky or gin. That is outrageous and the voters are awake to it,'' Mr Ferguson said.
