{"id":598830,"date":"2026-04-10T23:06:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T23:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/598830\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T23:06:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T23:06:20","slug":"greyhound-trainers-frustrated-over-lack-of-accountability-as-safety-issues-continue-at-ipswich-facility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/598830\/","title":{"rendered":"Greyhound trainers frustrated over ‘lack of accountability’ as safety issues continue at Ipswich facility"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greyhound trainers say they are frustrated by a lack of accountability over safety issues and race stoppages at a new $90 million facility in south-east Queensland, which was promised to be “as safe for dogs and trainers as possible”.<\/p>\n

The Q is a three-track facility at Purga near Ipswich, built with about $45 million of state government funds.<\/p>\n

Trials began in March last year, but major events \u2014 including the prestigious Brisbane Cup \u2014 were abandoned at the Q2 track in July due to unsafe conditions on the track.<\/p>\n

The abandonment came after the ABC reported at least seven dogs had died<\/a> due to injuries at the venue during its trial period.<\/p>\n

\"Tim<\/p>\n

An investigation ordered by Racing Minister Tim Mander identified numerous safety issues at The Q. (AAP Image: Darren England)<\/p>\n

An investigation into the facility was subsequently ordered by Racing Minister Tim Mander and made public late last year.<\/a><\/p>\n

It found drainage inefficiencies, sand inconsistencies and moisture management challenges at the track, and made several recommendations to improve safety for animals.<\/p>\n

These included the need for more experienced track curators to oversee preparation and maintenance, as well as improvements to drainage systems.<\/p>\n

Despite those findings, trainers say problems have persisted in the months since the report’s release, with several race meetings abandoned in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

Trainer Alan Dargusch has been training dogs for over two decades, alongside wife Casey.<\/p>\n

“In the last two weeks alone, participants have lost $150,000 in prize money payments from two abandoned meetings at Q2,” Mr Dargusch said.<\/p>\n

He said a race was abandoned two weeks ago as the track was overwatered, while last week there was no experienced maintenance staff onsite to fix a lure issue.<\/p>\n

“[If someone was on] it could have been rectified in 15 minutes and wouldn’t have caused an abandonment of a race meeting,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The club needs to be ensuring they have appropriate staff members on course and at work … to ensure the safest surface and safest operation of brand new equipment.”<\/p>\n

\"the<\/p>\n

A report into The Q found drainage inefficiencies, sand inconsistencies and moisture management challenges at the track. (Facebook: Jim Madden)<\/p>\n

Mr Dargusch said trainers understood the need for abandonments when the tracks were unsafe, and while there would always be “teething problems” at a new facility, the number of issues experienced at The Q was “hard to swallow”.<\/p>\n

“Participants have no control over the standards of the track. We turn up and hope the track has been prepared to the standard that is the best it can possibly be to ensure the health and wellbeing and welfare of the greyhounds as they race,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Where is the accountability from the people that get paid to supply us the property to race dogs on?<\/p>\n

“Success of The Q is paramount. If The Q doesn’t succeed, we don’t have anywhere to race in south-east Queensland apart from Capalaba.”<\/p>\n

He said the $100 per dog abandonment fee trainers were paid if a race is called off is not enough to cover the cost of transport to events now with high petrol and diesel costs.<\/p>\n

The issues come ahead of the start of the Winter Greyhound Carnival next month \u2014 with over $3 million in feature prize money on offer over the seven meetings.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Q is a collaboration between state government-owned Racing Queensland and local clubs.\u00a0 (Facebook: David Martin)<\/p>\n

The Brisbane Cup, which has a prize total of $1 million, is expected to take place on the Q2 track on July 4.<\/p>\n

The Q is managed day-to-day by the Queensland Greyhound Racing Club, but is also a partnership of Racing Queensland \u2014 the racing industry’s statutory body.<\/p>\n

Labor’s racing spokesperson Grace Grace, who was previously the racing minister when the venue was proposed, said the ongoing issues at the venue were “unacceptable”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Grace Grace says there were issues at The Q due to a “lack of attention” from the government. (ABC News: Lucas Hill)<\/p>\n

“For this to keep happening, following the review, following the recommendations, following the fact they talked about adequately trained staff \u2026 and they are still abandoning race meetings for things that could be fixed or prevented is unacceptable,” Ms Grace said.<\/p>\n

“They need to ensure the facility runs like clockwork, properly and safely.”<\/p>\n

Ms Grace said The Q was “the best facility in Australia and the world” but “due to a lack of attention” from the government, there continued to be issues.<\/p>\n

The ABC understands several recommendations from the report have been assessed as completed, including a review of staffing levels at the Queensland Greyhound Racing Club.<\/p>\n

“The $90 million The Q was commissioned and constructed under the former Labor Government, and the Crisafulli Government is now taking every step to ensure it meets animal welfare standards,” a spokesperson for Racing Minister Tim Mander said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The former Labor government had no plan for Queensland racing, but we are getting on with the job of delivering for this $2.5 billion industry.”<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Racing Queensland said “since the release of the report, Racing Queensland, the Queensland Racing Integrity Commission and the Queensland Greyhound Racing Club have implemented several recommendations with regards to track preparation and operations at The Q”.<\/p>\n

“Since racing commenced at The Q, the serious injury rate has all but halved year-on-year, with 99.8 per cent of greyhounds race at The Q without sustaining a serious injury,” they said.<\/p>\n

\"women<\/p>\n

Amy McMahon says to date this year six greyhounds had died as a result of injuries sustained at The Q. (Supplied\u00a0)<\/p>\n

Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds president Amy McMahon, former Greens MP for South Brisbane, said her organisation believed at least 31 dogs had died as a result of injuries sustained at The Q since racing began, including six this year.<\/p>\n

“The majority of Queenslanders right across the state, including people in regional Queensland, support \u2026 phasing out greyhound racing,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Greyhound trainers say they are frustrated by a lack of accountability over safety issues and race stoppages at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[292024,292020,245605,64,63,99,292021,292023,49817,292018,292022,43669,213173,292019,14935],"class_list":{"0":"post-598830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-alan-dargusch","9":"tag-animal-racing","10":"tag-animal-safety","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-business","14":"tag-dog-racing","15":"tag-grace-grace","16":"tag-greyhound-racing","17":"tag-greyhound-safety","18":"tag-greyhound-trainers","19":"tag-ipswich","20":"tag-racing-queensland","21":"tag-the-q","22":"tag-tim-mander"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}