Gold Coast Club takes aim at Yatla claims

Club president Barry Grimsey said Yatala would never be home to the Gold Coast-based club, which he said was awaiting word from Racing Queensland on its bid to rebuild at one of two sites including Munruben.

He was speaking out after property developer Kevin Seymour said a 24ha site on Zipfs Rd at Yatala was the best option to fill the void in the Gold Coast harness racing market.

The Gold Coast club moved to Albion and other venues in 2013, to make way for the Commonwealth Games Athletes Village.

“We formed a Gold Coast syndicate, called Parklands 2.0, which proposed two sites on the central Gold Coast, which will also cater to southern Brisbane and Logan industry members, participants and supporters,” Mr Grimsey said.

Mr Grimsey said there were still issues with the Yatala site.

He said it did not have “facilities needed to subsidise its operation”.

Gold Coast City Council approved the Yatala development application in 2014 for harness racing.

Mr Seymour said the beauty of the Zipfs Rd site was it already had Gold Coast Council approval.

“Our plans do not include greyhound racing but there were talks of those facilities moving to Border Park on the Tweed,” he said.

By Judith Kerr, Quest Newspapers

Reprinted with permission of The Courier Mail