Queensland Winter Greyhound Racing Carnival reaches new heights in 2026

The richest Queensland Winter Greyhound Racing Carnival in history is set to light up The Q in 2026.

Queensland’s new home of greyhound racing will showcase this year’s Winter Carnival over seven action-packed meetings from May 9 to July 11.

For the first time this year, The Q will host the Group 1 Ladbrokes Ipswich Cup, while a new Group 2 event called the Mach 10 will be run on the Q Straight.

The addition of these events to the winter carnival schedule will see over $3 million in feature prize money go up for grabs for the first time.

The $1 million Group 1 Ladbrokes Brisbane Cup on July 11 will maintain its status as one of the world’s premier greyhound races, taking its position as the crowning jewel of the carnival and offering a huge $650,000 to the winner.

The same evening, the Group 1 Queensland Cup will be run for the stayers, boasting prize money of $262,500.

Being run at Q1 Lakeside for the first time, the $225,000 Ipswich Cup will headline a bumper evening on June 4, which will also include the Group 3 Dashing Corsair.

A blockbuster night on Thursday, June 18 will honour a pair of Queensland champions with the Group 1 $225,000 Ladbrokes Flying Amy Classic and Group 2 Cyndie’s Magic – being held this year on the Q2 Parklands track - along with the inaugural running of the Mach 10

“The Crisafulli Government is proud to be backing greyhound racing in Queensland,” Racing Minister Tim Mander said.

“The Queensland Winter Greyhound Racing Carnival continues to raise the bar and can go to even greater heights at its new permanent home, The Q.

"I am particularly looking forward to the time-honoured Brisbane Cup and cheering on Queensland in the highly successful Origin Greyhound Series."

After wrestling back the trophy in 2025, Queensland will be looking to go back-to-back when the popular Ladbrokes Origin Greyhound Series kicks off on June 25.

The series will feature both the Origin Sprint and Origin Distance (worth $150,000 apiece) as well as the $60,000 two-dog match race, where competing chasers will be selected by Queensland and NSW respectively.

“After debuting at The Q last year, the Queensland Winter Greyhound Racing Carnival is set to be even bigger in 2026 as we incorporate more flagship races into the programme,” RQ Acting CEO Lachlan Murray said.

“While the Brisbane Cup remains the crowning jewel of the programme, we are delighted to welcome the time-honoured Ipswich Cup to our new facility for the first time, as well as the new Mach 10 which will give participants feature races across all tracks at The Q.

“As always, the Flying Amy Classic evening will be a night not to be missed, coupled with the famous Origin Greyhound Series a week later.”

QGOLD evening will return to the one evening format in 2026, with eight races to be held across the meeting on May 9.

Restricted to greyhounds born and bred in Queensland, the QGOLD meeting will see more than $220,000 in prize money on offer.

Click here to read more about the 2026 Queensland Winter Greyhound Racing Carnival.