Goulburn hits the jackpot in funding injections for regional NSW racing

Goulburn Race Club has emerged as the biggest winner out of a Racing NSW capital works spending package after securing almost half of a $20 million statewide allocation.

The NSW Southern Tablelands club will receive $9.5 million to construct new stables and “supporting infrastructure”.

Speaking to The Straight, Goulburn chief executive Robyn Fife says the funding is a vital boost to the club’s long-planned infrastructure renovations.

“We’ve been working on some new stables for over five years because the demand at Goulburn is high,” she said.

“We can’t wait to progress the club further. It will mean more horses on the track, more staff and more trainers. It’s positives all round.”

Goulburn has increasingly become an important outlet on the country scene.

It’s a spacious, well-performing track that continually attracts leading Sydney stables.

The club hasn’t disclosed who the proposed new stabling will accommodate but existing demand among local trainers would fill the new complex “in a heartbeat”, according to Fife.

“I can say we’ve been waiting a long time for this,” she said.

“We’re very grateful that we got a very significant amount (of the funding). The dollar figure is not lost on us.”

Racing NSW confirmed that the Goulburn works already have the required development approvals.

Goulburn-based firm Dutaillis Architects lodged a development application in the middle of 2023 for the proposed new stables and associated works along Racecourse Drive.

The remaining Racing NSW funding will be spread between Wyong, Albury, Dubbo, Wagga, Ballina, Orange, Grafton and Gosford race clubs.

NSW Racing Minister David Harris said the funding injections were more critical than ever.

“Thoroughbred racing is an economic powerhouse in regional New South Wales,” he said.

“Regional racecourses and clubs play a crucial role in developing our state’s world-class thoroughbreds and creating the champion racehorses of the future.

“This funding injection is about future-proofing the industry. The NSW government understands the value that racing brings to NSW and will continue to support it being the number one state for thoroughbred racing in the country.”

Harris announced the funding when joined by new Racing NSW chair, Dr Saranne Cooke, at Wyong Race Club.

Wyong, which sits inside Harris’s electorate and which will celebrate 150 years of racing next year, will receive $1.5 million towards irrigation and drainage upgrades.

Gosford will get $2 million to construct a new camber for its home turn, which Racing NSW says will improve the competitiveness of the track, and works on this project will commence in May.

Albury’s funding will see it receive a new sand track, doubling its training capacity, while Dubbo and Grafton will similarly receive new sand tracks to replace their existing, ‘end-of-life’ surfaces.

At Ballina, there will be an overhaul of the irrigation system, as will also occur at Grafton, while Wagga is up for a renovation of the Riverside grass training track.