Goldstar team in awe of new Queensland greyhound venue
Peter Fenemor • April 7th, 2025 10:53 AM • 5 min read
Goldstar Racings Steve and Riley Evans are in complete awe of the new state-of-the-art The Q greyhound venue in Queensland after being given a guided tour throughout the venue during Friday’s grand opening of the A$85 million complex.
The father and son members of Canterbury’s Goldstar Racing team had just two-days before relocated 80 greyhounds from their Leeston training base to their new racing base in Churchable (read below).
“We received a special invitation to attend the opening of The Q (the venue was closed to the general public).
“The Q venue is simply unbelievable. The track is absolutely amazing,” enthused Steve Evans. “It is magnificent – the best in the world. They have done everything right.”
The Q incorporates three greyhound tracks at the world class venue – a two-turn (circle) track, a one-turn track plus a straight track.
The A$85 million facility has been funded by the Queensland State Government, Racing Queensland and the former Brisbane and Ipswich clubs.
The Brisbane and Ipswich greyhound clubs has merged to form the Queensland Greyhound Club to race at the new venue, which is located at Yamanto on the outskirts of Ipswich.
Racing commenced on the one-turn track, known as the Q1 Lakeside, with a 12 race card being held last Friday.
The distinction of training the first-ever winner at the venue went to leading Queensland trainer Tony Brett who prepared the warm favourite Miss Spritz to easily win her 390m sprint.
Feedback from trainers during the opening meeting was extremely encouraging with positive comments freely flowing about the expansive track allowing for interference free racing on a track surface that raced perfectly.
The two-turn track will be known as the Q2 Parklands track. The rich Queensland winter carnival, which features the A$1million Brisbane Cup, will signal the start of racing on the track with preliminary meetings starting in either late May or early June.
And the straight track will be called The Q Straight. Trialing on the straight track has commenced. Racing 10-dog fields on the straight track is being considered.
The Queensland club has secured 10-year sponsorship relationship with Ladbrokes, reportedly being the richest sponsorship agreement in greyhound racing history.
The venue’s world class facilities incorporates fully air-conditioned kennels, postrace plunge pools and a veterinary clinic, while the stand will have function and hospitality areas available.
“The air conditioned kennel blocks are simply stunning. They have 12 bays of kennels, with each bay consisting of eight kennels. There are three sets of them, covering the three-tracks.
“When a greyhound has finished racing they have the option of using a plunge pool. There are ramps where handlers can walk down while their greyhounds are cooling down in the pool.
“The safety and welfare of the greyhounds is their number one priority,” advised Evans.
The complex is community friendly with featured sporting, recreation and park facilities included.
Successful relocation of 80 Goldstar greyhounds
With military style precision the relocation of 80 greyhounds from the Goldstar Racing Canterbury kennels into their new Queensland kennels was successfully completed last Wednesday.
The mammoth operation involved a specially charted four-hour flight to Brisbane.
Goldstar Racing has become a potent force within New Zealand greyhound racing.
The family orientated team, consisting of trainer Riley, along with his parents Steve and Bonnie Evans, began planning their monumental trans-Tasman move the day after Racing Minister Winston Peters announced the looming ban of greyhound racing in New Zealand as Steve explains.
“We were racing in Palmerston North the day that the ban was announced. The following day, when back at home, we had a family meeting and decided the only option we had to continue racing greyhounds was to move to Australia.
“Bonnie and myself spent time checking out possible training bases in Victoria and New South Wales. We were then made aware that an ideal property in Queensland was available.
“We checked out the Federal Racing property in Churchable which is a state-of-art facility, especially suitable for our requirements – it’s perfect. We signed a twelve-month lease with the right to purchase with Morgan Benjes. After four-months everything has fallen into place,” advised Steve Evans.
The Federal naming prefix is well known to New Zealand greyhound followers with Noeline Benjes owning New Zealand’s highest ever stake earning greyhound Federal Infrared. She earned $400,808 when trained in Palmerston North by Lisa Cole.
“We completed a massive amount of background work in planning our move, ensuring we did everything by the book and that all boxes were correctly signed off.
“We received MPI clearance to export our greyhounds to Australia at 4.30pm last Tuesday – 14 hours later we were flying across the Tasman.
“Yes, it was very stressful with it being the most-crazy day of our lives. We started crating the greyhounds at 3am on Wednesday with help from our valued staff and a few others – they were brilliant in the manner that they helped us,” commented Evans.
“Riley and myself flew with the greyhounds. We had a hiccup when we arrived in Brisbane with a three-hour delay at customs. I hired two semi-truck and trailer units to transport the team to Churchable, a 100km trip.
“The first truck got bogged down in the driveway, so we had to walk all of the greyhounds around 200m to their kennels, while carrying the pups we brought over in the pitch black darkness.
“All greyhounds travelled over unbelievably well and all of them have settled into their new kennels fantastically well. They all arrived 100 percent fit and healthy,” informed Evans.
Queensland Racing Integrity officials were inspecting the newly arrived greyhounds when we spoke to Steve Evans on Saturday morning.
“The Queensland Racing Integrity officials signoff everything with us this morning. We expect to receive our licenses during the week and then we can start trialing our team.
“Riley’s partner Maddy, along with her family have come over and are helping us settle in – they have been so good.
“The greyhounds here have the best of facilities. All of the kennels are air conditioned. We have challenging lanes, large rearing paddocks and a 75m uphill straight track.
“We are 45 minutes-drive from The Q track and we’re super excited about racing there,” explained Evans.
Meanwhile wife Bonnie has remained at the couple’s Leeston property. “We still have 40 greyhounds located there and Bonnie is working on rehoming all of them.
“Once we get up and running over here Bonnie will come over and I’ll go back to wrap everything up at home, including reverting our place back to a lifestyle block, preparing it for sale.
“It has been very hard emotionally and physically. It is really tough having to leave family and so many close friends,” an emotional Evans explained.
“The support and help we’ve had from so many people has been sensational. We cannot thank them enough for the amazing support we’ve had. I’m getting constant messages saying good on you for making the move.
“While the whole exercise has been successful and the prospects here is very exciting, it has been a bloody expensive experience,” commented Evans about the move which has cost the family north of $300,000.
One factor is for sure, once the Goldstar team is up and racing, they certainly will be kicking goals with the quality greyhounds they have bred and successfully raced in New Zealand!
“We will continue what we and our greyhounds love doing – racing!”
