Safety issues made it impossible to start more than 12 runners in the $175,000 Listed Bernborough Handicap at Toowoomba on Tuesday, according to Racing Queensland officials.

The Bernborough (1600m) is one of the oldest summer feature races in Queensland and is usually run at Doomben.

However, RQ switched it to Toowoomba to mark the reopening of a new grass surface at the Darling Downs racetrack.

The Bernborough field has been restricted to 12 runners with seven emergencies declared, leaving some trainers and owners far from happy.

Racing Queensland chief executive Darren Condon said when the meeting was programmed it had been hoped to have at least 14 runners.

However, stewards had inspected the track recently and insisted 12 runners was the maximum for safety reasons.

"Safety has to be paramount but we had been hoping to get 14 runners. At least it is a quality field with some very good horses entered," he said.

Mr Condon said RQ would have put on a $50,000 consolation race had it got 24 acceptors for the Bernborough but only 21 had paid up.

"It would have not been economical to run a consolation race with only nine runners," he said.

Last-start Villiers Stakes placegetter Alma's Fury is the 60kg topweight for the Bernborough.