Brisbane Racing Club, an amalgamation of the Brisbane Turf Club and the Queensland Turf Club, in its first year of operation, has delivered the best Racing Carnival attendance results in years.

Chairman Kevin Dixon said, Carnival attendance was up 21%, to a total of 57,000.

AAMI Stradbroke Day undoubtedly confirmed its position as Queensland’s biggest Carnival race day with attendance at 23,980, with an estimated 2,000 visitors from interstate and overseas.

Total prizemoney was nearly $8million with 31 of the 40 races carrying Black Type, and six races being run at Group One level.

AAMI Stradbroke Day alone had three Group One races and all the other races carried Black Type.

The excitement on AAMI Stradbroke Day was capped off by Black Piranha winning for the second year in a row.

The Brisbane Racing Carnival is a significant event on the Australian racing calendar with Australasia’s best trainers, horses and jockeys competing.

149 individual horses from Victoria and NSW came to Brisbane for the Carnival and another 30 horses specially made the trip across the Tasman from New Zealand.

19 individual winners of Group One races competed over the five days of high quality racing including Australia’s highest rated racehorse, Whobegotyou.

This makes the Channel 7 Brisbane Racing Carnival the biggest festival of racing in Queensland by far, Mr Dixon said.

Tremendous community engagement was achieved through the AAMI Stradbroke Primary Schools Art Competition with schools participating from Chinchilla to Beaudesert and right across metro Brisbane.

International superstars Takeover Target and Rough Habit provided race goers the rare opportunity to get “up close and personal” with racing equine superstars.

BRC major sponsors AAMI, Channel 7, Sky Channel, Queensland Events, Brisbane Marketing, Conrad Treasury, Bundaberg Red Rum, Kirks, Carlton United Breweries, and Austereo, all provided exceptional corporate and marketing support.

For the first time, the AAMI Stradbroke and Channel 7 Queensland Derby were covered live to air by Channel 7, with popular Seven personality Sophie Formica being a wonderful ambassador for the Carnival.

Queensland race-goers can still look forward to the Ipswich and Caloundra Cups, plus the Tattersall’s Winter Stakes Day at Eagle Farm with five black type races including the Group One Sky Channel Winter Stakes.

Industry experts, punters and pundits appreciate that Brisbane Racing Carnival is often the launch pad for a successful spring carnival revealing the horses to watch.

The last two Brisbane Carnivals have produced the last two winners of the Melbourne Cup; Viewed (2008) and Shocking (2009). Will this year make it three in a row?