Bikinis at the ready on the Gold Coast

girlsBy all accounts Australia wouldn’t be a bad place to take up residence. Save the ambivalence towards online gambling, and you’ve got sunny beaches, surfing, vast expanses of land, extreme sports aplenty, and a large population of kangaroos that you can attempt to take a ride-in (not for the faint hearted). The latest to come out of Australia will dissuade only the most celibate of men from visiting the country.

The Gold Coast Turf Club, Queensland, are planning a new novelty event that will see bikini clad women locked in the barrier stalls, and then raced down a racecourse in an annual race. This is of course similar to the event held at America’s Hollywood Park course, but the plans have courted split opinion in the state. In poll in the Gold Coast Bulletin had 39% thinking the gimmick was degrading, 61% disagreed – the amount of men surveyed is not reported.

Up to 150 women, who MUST, I repeat MUST, be bikini-clad (and wear running shoes) will compete for a prize of AUS$5,000 and the right to call themselves a winning race horse. It may well just be a marketing ploy, but girls in bikinis running down a race track on a sunny day is a bloody good ploy at that.