Wednesday racing spoils shared New

Date: 01-May-2025

A NEW distance was introduced to Ipswich racing as part of Wednesday’s big 10-race midweek metropolitan fixture, where most of the spoils were shared across the day.

As a result of recent renovation works to the mouth of the 1350m chute, races scheduled at that distance had to be shifted to the 1200m chute.

Track Manager Sean Tou and his staff were able to manufacture a 1240m start at the back of that chute, owing to the rail being out 8m for the meeting.

So five races were run and won over the ‘new’ distance.

Hopefully it will only be a one-off, as Racing Queensland has given the green light for racing to return to the 1350m chute for Monday’s big Labour Day meeting.

Following the recent flooding and relentless rainfall, the mouth of the 1350m chute had become waterlogged, necessitating the replacement of a section of turf.

Tou and the team put down 200sq m of new turf at the exit of the chute and the team has been thrilled with the way it has bedded in so quickly with the rest of the track.

It coincided with a mid-season track renovation, which hopefully sets the track up to be in pristine condition as we head towards the TAB Ipswich Cup meeting on June 21.

On Wednesday, Kelly Schweida and Matt Dunn both prepared winning doubles, while Jag Guthmann-Chester took out riding honours by booting home Kiwi Spirit (for the newly re-named Annabel and Rob Archibald stable) and Ring Of Steel for Schweida.

Ring Of Steel has proven a real conundrum for punters at times. He was beaten out of a place here at Ipswich two starts back when a well-fancied $3.40 pop. On Wednesday he was mostly discarded by punters, starting at $15, but he was on his best behaviour to defy the heavily backed runner-up Give Giggles.

Ring Of Steel has now won three of his six starts at Ipswich.

An unusual aspect of the meeting was six of the 10 races being Maidens, as a result of Racing Queensland splitting two races due to overwhelming acceptances.

The biggest cheer of the day came in the opening race when the Matt Dunn-trained Don’t Tellyafather was an impressive debut winner, much to the delight of his huge team of owners.

Don’t Tellyafather is so named as a tribute to a recently departed close family member and friend of the ownership group and his win carried huge sentimental emotions.

Back to list