19 February 2018 | RQ Media
Racing Queensland’s commercial strategy to convert non-TAB to TAB race meetings where possible has resulted in two TAB meetings being allocated to the Marburg Pacing Association for the first time in the club’s history.
Marburg’s Easter Sunday meeting (1 April 2018) will be a TAB meeting broadcast live on Sky Racing, with the Labour Day Public Holiday meeting (7 May 2018) also allocated TAB status.
It comes after the hard-working MPA committee secured a major sponsor to bankroll an exciting new series culminating in a $25,000 final.
Oakwood Capital – a commercial finance brokerage company – has partnered with the club to help with a goal of assisting the sport at the grassroots level.
Director Craig Whiteoak said: “Oakwood Capital is thrilled to partner the Marburg Pacing Association to present the inaugural running of the standing start series, which represents a significant boost to harness racing in Queensland at a grass roots club”.
Excited Marburg Club President Scott Neaves said the MPA was hugely appreciative of the support of Oakwood Capital and Mr Whiteoak.
“We are really looking forward to putting on a massive series of racing, with the final being our first occasion of TAB coverage and Sky Channel broadcasting,” he said.
The Oakwood Capital Goldstrike Series will be conducted under standing-start conditions for horses assessed R0 or better, but no better than C5.
Heats, scheduled for March 24, are to be split by class with all horses starting from the front. However, if some classes have to be combined the barrier draw will be drawn on “C” or Career class.
Five Heats are intended to be conducted with first and second qualifying for the rich $25,000 Final on Sunday April 1.
The handicaps for the Final will be 10 metres for each Career class and the winner will take a Career and Graduation Penalty only.
This new series is based on the former Rocklea Pot Of Gold Series.
Several standing start races have been added to the program at Redcliffe and another at Marburg in February to provide suitable lead-ins to this fantastic new Series.
Mr Whiteoak said his company looked forward to sponsoring a great day of racing and entertainment, referring to the various plans for what has long been a family fun day at the Marburg Showgrounds and the committee’s plans to make this the biggest yet.
The MPA and Oakwood Capital are optimistic that this series can encourage growth of industry participants and the interest of the public generally in the entertainment and enjoyment that harness racing has to offer.
The new series complements other participation initiatives such as the Aspiration races, hobbyist only races and Marburg to Metro races recently introduced by Racing Queensland and its Clubs to increase racing and winning opportunities particularly at the grass roots level.
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