Sport
24 October, 2025
Early start for Richmond Ladies Day race meeting
The expected forecast has forced the club to start tomorrow's meeting at 11am.
A condensed two-hour meeting will be staged at Richmond tomorrow as the industry attempts to beat the heat.
Racing will start at 11am for the Richmond Turf Club’s “ladies day”, with the fifth and final race to be run at 1pm.
The directive came from Racing Queensland as part of its horse welfare policy, with a forecast temperature of 42 degrees expected tomorrow afternoon.
While punters will be staying cool in the shade, the change of times won’t impact the events planned, says club president Nick Buick, with the fashions on the field and DJ still going ahead.
On the track, Julia Creek trainer Tanya Parry has a strong hand once again, backing up from three winners at Mount Isa’s TAB program on Monday.
Local trainer Shryn Royes also has several winning chances, headlined by tough sprinter Restrictions in the opening event, a Benchmark 65 Handicap (1000m).
Toni Schofield is making the trip from Barcaldine with four runners, while Winton’s Ray Hermann has three confirmed runners.
One horse to keep an eye on could be Irish Gift, trained out of Townsville by Nathan Coves.
A last-start winner at Richmond earlier this month, the five-year-old gelding is the only runner from Coves’ stable racing tomorrow.
Irish Gift is running in the Class B Handicap (1200m).
There are just five jockeys engaged for the Richmond meeting in what is a busy day on the racing calendar.
Meetings are being staged at Townsville, Isisford, Charleville, Gladstone, Clifton and Gympie, along with the usual trio of Gold Coast, Doomben and Toowoomba.