Caption: An artist’s impression of the three-track Greater Brisbane Racing Centre at Purga, set to commence racing late in 2024.

“IT won’t happen overnight but it will happen.’’

            Do those words ring a bell? They were used in an advertisement for Pantene shampoo back in the 1990s and for some reason lots of people have quoted those words about many things.

            That catchphrase came to my mind when the announcement was made a few weeks ago that harness racing in Queensland will be shifting from Albion Park to a new headquarters at Norwell, which is at the northern end of the Gold Coast.

            Harness and greyhound racing have been sharing Albion Park since 1993. The greyhounds will move to a new track at Purga near Ipswich with racing there expected to commence late in 2024. The harness code will move to Norwell in 2026. As the actress and model Rachel Hunter said about the shampoo: “It won’t happen overnight but it will happen.”

            Purga, or the Greater Brisbane Racing Centre as it has been temporarily labelled, will have three greyhound tracks at the one venue. An Albion Park-shaped and sized track on one side, a straight track through the middle and what is so commonly called a ‘one-turn’ track, similar to the former Gold Coast and Toowoomba tracks in Queensland, on the other side.

            I would love to see some Group One races staged on the ‘one-turn’ track at Purga. And I reckon I’ve got the way to do it. How about the National Sprint Championship over 457 metres and the National Distance Championship over 720 metres or thereabouts on the same night on Purga’s one-turn track? What could be an issue is that the metropolitan tracks of Wentworth Park, Sandown, the Meadows, Angle Park and Cannington don’t have a sprint distance of 457 metres for their state heats and finals. It wouldn’t make a lot of sense to have state heats and finals of the Sprint Championship over 515 to 530 metres then those representatives having to drop back to 457 metres for the grand final. Heats and finals of the Distance series over 715 to 740 metres should work okay.

            Remember the glory days of Sydney’s ‘one-turn’ Harold Park where flying machines like Brother Fox excelled  Let’s bring back some of that pure sprinting on a big and fast track at Purga.

            Here’s a further plan. Run the heats of the National Sprint at a track like Maitland or Bulli in New South Wales, Ballarat or Bendigo in Victoria. Murray Bridge in South Australia, Hobart in Tasmania and Mandurah in Western Australia. All are nice, spacious tracks after all.

            As far as I can see, Queensland’s next scheduled staging of the Nationals is around 2025. So the timeframe is good to get something moving sooner than later.

            I’d love someone to say “it won’t happen overnight but it will happen” to this idea. It’s my New Year’s wish.

            And finally, there was a gallops race at Warrnambool recently called the Brother Fox Maiden Handicap. It got me wondering what that’s about and it so happens that there is a business in Warrnambool called Brother Fox Food and Hospitality.