‘I don’t want racetracks eaten up and thrown out’ – Gai Waterhouse on controversial Rosehill closure proposal

The proposal to build a new racecourse in Sydney is “an ambition” rather than a “non-negotiable” part of the plan to sell Rosehill for a residential development, Australian Turf Club chairman Peter McGauran said on Thursday.

Legendary trainer Gai Waterhouse slammed the scheme as “a travesty”, and said instead of closing Rosehill to address Sydney’s housing crisis, new high-rise apartments could be incorporated around the course, as they are in Hong Kong.

Sydney’s racing community was abuzz on Thursday after NSW Premier Chris Minns confirmed a divisive memorandum of understanding between his government and the Australian Turf Club aimed at shutting Rosehill by the end of the decade to build a “mini-city” development, including 25,000 residences, park areas and a school.

McGauran said the ATC made an unsolicited approach to the state government with the proposal, and said the gradual selling of parcels of the Rosehill precinct would raise at least A$5 billion (£2.6bn/€3bn), which would “future-proof” racing at Sydney’s remaining three tracks for the next century.

The funds, he said, would be spent on radical overhauls of Canterbury and Warwick Farm, including expanding the tracks themselves, to improve them as racing venues. Stabling at Warwick Farm – Sydney’s largest training centre – would be brought totally on-course rather than remain scattered around the neighbourhood, while spectator facilities at both venues would be upgraded.

McGauran described as “non-negotiable” the plan to build a new “world-class” centre of excellence at Horsley Park on Sydney’s outer fringe – 26km, or 45 minutes’ drive, west of Rosehill.

But with the upgrades and expansions at Canterbury and Warwick Farm being integral to the plan, McGauran conceded the proposal included in the MOU to build a new world-class racecourse at an as-yet undetermined location was “an ambition” at this stage.

In other developments a day after Wednesday night’s bombshell revelation of the proposal to shut the 138-year-old Parramatta track – which would require voting approval from the ATC’s 12,500 members – Richard Freedman said whether his and other stables relocated to Horsley Park would likely hinge on whether Chris Waller did.

“It depends who’s repositioned there,” Freedman told ANZ Bloodstock News. “We currently have seven trainers at Rosehill and one of them is the leading trainer in Sydney. Wherever he goes, it’s probably going to have immediate credibility. But if he doesn’t go there, everyone will reassess.”

Waller, who has a vast double-storey stable at Rosehill housing some 180 horses at a time, told ANZ Bloodstock News by text message he was “still processing it and finding out more information before commenting”.

When asked by ANZ Bloodstock News why the ATC would sell Rosehill, a club spokesman said: “Five billion dollars.”

And in a later interview with ANZ Bloodstock News, McGauran said that was a conservative estimate “by experts” of the funds that would be raised by the club through the gradual selling to developers of tracts of the 90 hectare site.

Much has to be done before that can proceed. The idea will in the new year be subjected to debate, development and legislation under the NSW government’s “unsolicited proposal process”, which McGauran said would take some 12 months.

If that proceeds smoothly, the ATC would, McGauran said, begin selling parts of the Rosehill precinct that did not need member approval to be sold, “to generate cashflow and begin construction on the Horsley Park training centre of excellence and some immediate improvements at the other tracks”.

Action from Rosehill this August – the track and its trainers have closure having over themCredit: Jeremy Ng/Getty Images

He said: “We will do it in stages. Some of those stages are non-core land and will not require a vote of members. Once you’re selling land that impedes on the racing and training at Rosehill, you need a vote.”

An ATC spokesman said plans for Canterbury included removing existing facilities including the grandstand to make “a bigger and wider track” covering currently open parts of the precinct. The reconfiguration would likely entail both sides of the compact track – currently 1,567m in circumference – being extended.

Similarly, the spokesman said it was planned to knock down existing facilities at the 1,937m circumference Warwick Farm to enable a more spacious “world-class” track.

Considering Sydney would thus have two vastly improved supporting courses alongside the world-class Randwick, McGauran was asked to comment on cynicism from some industry figures about the new track being built.

“We’re proceeding as intended whilst the search for a new racing location continues,” he told ANZ Bloodstock News.

Asked if the new racetrack was a non-negotiable, like Horsley Park, the former politician said: “It’s an ambition. Because that’s not the government’s problem. It’s an ambition of the ATC’s and Racing NSW.”

He added Racing NSW had held a board meeting and “they agree in principle to the development of Rosehill Gardens”.

Waterhouse derided the idea of building a new track, and of closing Rosehill.

“It’s so expensive to build a new track, and unnecessary,” she told ANZ Bloodstock News. “Why build something new when we’ve got a perfectly good, extremely efficient, racetrack at Rosehill?

“They talk about Horsley Park and what they’re going to do there. That’s an expensive thing when they’ve already got a racetrack, and I’m sure that if they really put their thinking caps on they could work it out.

“I’m not saying, ‘Don’t build the apartments’. I’m saying, with the architects we have nowadays, you could build them in conjunction with the racetrack – as they’ve done at Sha Tin. It wouldn’t be the first time high-rise apartments have been incorporated with a racetrack. There are other ways to skin a cat.”

Waterhouse described the proposal as a money-grab that would rob the Parramatta area of a treasured, historic and important facility.

“I just think they should have thought very wisely. To lose the racetrack would be a travesty,” she said.

“I don’t want racetracks eaten up and thrown out. I still think the club can get the money and the box. They can get a terrific payout by selling part of the precinct and keeping the racetrack.

“The racetrack is essential for the community around the racetrack and in the west. They cannot afford to lose another facility like it. All those racegoers will be lost to racing because there’ll be no racing there. They’ll lose that demographic from racing. There’ll be a redeveloped Warwick Farm out west, but the demographic that goes to Warwick Farm doesn’t go to Rosehill, and vice-versa.”

McGauran said the plan for Rosehill – and thus for “much-needed” infrastructure spending at Warwick Farm, Canterbury and Randwick – had to proceed on an all-or-nothing basis.

Peter McGauran: “It’s all or nothing”Credit: Australian Turf Club

Central to the plan is the government’s approval – confirmed by Minns on Thursday – of a new Metro West station built at Rosehill.

In a slightly ironic twist, the ATC had petitioned the government to have a Metro stop built at the track to improve public transport access on racedays – which was severely impeded when Rosehill lost its railway connection six years ago.

But when the ATC learnt of a government stipulation that a Metro stop must service 40,000 homes, it then triggered the club’s notion to sell the track, since it realised the station would not be built in any case without the planned new residences.

Not seeing any irony, McGauran on Thursday said this had instead meant “the planets aligned” to facilitate the sale proposal – and the resultant boost to the club’s coffers – at a time when the ATC’s financial position didn’t exactly mirror the robust state of Racing NSW’s income, and prize-money levels in the state.

“We learnt that a station is only economically justifiable – they cost around A$500 million each to build – if it services 40,000 homes,” said McGauran.

“So it occurred to us that if we develop all of the Rosehill Gardens racecourse, you would meet that 40,000 requirement.

“And we’ve entered into an MOU with the government whereby it rezones Rosehill Gardens, constructs a Metro West station, and provides land at Horsley Park for a new state-of-the-art training centre.

“There are three stages during 2024 that we can exit the MOU with the state government, given that it’s non-binding.

“I believe the project will proceed, but there are certain non-negotiables on our part that the government is well aware of, and especially Horsley Park being available for the relocation of Rosehill trainers before the development can begin.

“If it weren’t for the metro station, it wouldn’t be worth our while [to sell].”

He added: “There are opportunities to walk away, which I don’t envisage, because the government wants it to happen and we want it to happen. There will be compromises at different points, but we still retain the final right not to proceed if it’s in the interests of the industry not to.”

The ATC said aside from improvements to Canterbury and Warwick Farm, the funds would allow it to “rebuild and expand the number of stables and training infrastructure” at Randwick. Hinting at the type of development likely, McGauran said “we’ve basically perfected the double-storey stable structure”.

It’s envisaged the training capacity at Randwick, where 12 stables are based, would rise from 540 horses to 700, and that Horsley Park could accommodate the same number. Currently, 340 horses prepared at Rosehill, with 900 at Warwick Farm, also spread across 12 stables.

Chris Waller: Sydney’s biggest trainer wants more details before commenting on the Rosehill newsCredit: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images

The ATC owns Rosehill, Warwick Farm and Canterbury. Randwick is leased from the government by the club under a 99-year lease which has another 80 years to run, an ATC spokesman said.

McGauran described the Rosehill sale and its offshoots as a “win-win” for racing and housing.

“We’ll be growing the number of horses in training in Sydney,” he said. “We are committed to metropolitan training, unlike other jurisdictions, but it does mean you have to adapt in the modern era, of heavy traffic, and industrial development.

“Revenue of this magnitude is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to secure racing in Sydney in a way nobody could have dreamed of previously. We can finally reinvigorate Canterbury and Warwick Farm in every aspect, as well as build new stabling at Randwick.

“Moreover, the income from the safely-deposited funds will give the ATC a sustainable financial security which it currently lacks, and may well have otherwise deteriorated in the future.”

McGauran said the A$5bn income estimate was “the most conservative of the modelling done by experts in the field”. He wouldn’t comment on the highest figure quoted, but said A$5bn was “certainly below the land value of other developments in Parramatta”, adding Rosehill was “an uncontaminated, near-perfect building site”.

The ATC is part of an alliance of landowners at Rosehill and neighbouring Camellia who have been contemplating residential developments. McGauran said the proposed Camellia Town development project, which requires rehabilitation of contaminated industrial land, “wouldn’t even constitute half the minimum requirement of 40,000 dwellings”.

“Rosehill’s legacy will be one of the greatest community assets in Sydney, and a reinvigorated and restored and secure racing industry,” he said.

Freedman said he wouldn’t “get too excited or disappointed” until more details of the proposal were known.

Richard Freedman: trainer won’t “get too excited or disappointed” until more is knownCredit: Jeremy Ng/Getty Images

He said: “Where will trainers be going? What will those facilities be like if it’s built? What are the alternatives? All that just can’t be known at this stage.

“I’m sympathetic to that point of view that it would be sad to lose Rosehill, but I’m also pragmatic. If there’s some benefit to the racing industry as a whole to make a particular proposal work, I’m happy to investigate it.

“All I know is, under this proposal, the seven trainers at Rosehill are going to have to shoulder the burden for the benefit of the whole industry. So the benefit needs to be significant, and those trainers will need to be supported.”

Fellow Rosehill trainer David Payne called the plan “a win-win”.

He told Racing and Sports: “For the horses, it will be much better. Rosehill is a bit of a concrete jungle, the horses just go from the boxes to the track and back and then out of their boxes onto the walker. At least out there [Horsley Park] they can put paddocks up for them and it will be much more open. If they do it right, it could be a showpiece of the world.”

But Randwick trainer John O’Shea told the website: “I would be concerned. It’s the jewel in the crown of the racing industry’s asset base. There are myriad concerns that need to be talked through.”

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