Inside Racing NSW’s $125 million property empire

Exclusive: It is a real estate portfolio that has something for everyone: plush apartments in Sydney, stables at city racetracks, properties to train thoroughbreds, farms to rehome ex-racehorses and land to produce hay for horses under Racing NSW’s care.

In the past seven years, the racing authority has launched a spending spree that has seen it acquire more than 50 properties for an outlay in excess of $125 million.

It is an investment strategy that is also being employed in another sport with an obvious link to the thoroughbred industry – via Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys.

V’landys is also the chairman of the Australian Rugby League Commission, the national administrative body of the code that includes the NRL.

He reportedly wants the NRL to reach $300 million in assets and while it is uncertain what a Racing NSW property target looks like, there is no question that racing and real estate deals have become inseparable bedfellows across the state.

With the announcement of the potential sale of Rosehill racecourse – and the search for a new site for a racetrack in Sydney – The Straight reviewed the property acquisitions of Racing NSW after accessing state land title records.

Top five properties purchased by Racing NSW since 2017

Full List

Welfare 

This Racing NSW strategy began in earnest in June 2017 with the $5.04 million purchase of 992 hectares of land in Capertee, about 50km north of Lithgow, on the NSW Central Tablelands.

The purchase – publicised on the front page of Sydney’s Daily Telegraph – was described by Racing NSW as a home not just for retraining retired racehorses, but an ecotourism site.

A homestead would be turned into accommodation for those visiting to buy the retrained thoroughbreds. 

As an extra incentive to encourage visitors, the farm would also become a home for retired legends of the turf.

While the property featured an indoor equestrian arena, much of the land was set up for cattle and sheep.

Racing NSW followed that purchase with further properties for the retirement of racehorses, the most expensive of which was Bart Cummings’ Princes Farm near Penrith on the edges of western Sydney, which cost $14 million in 2018.

At the time this was described as the “shopfront” for Racing NSW’s welfare activities and a site for training staff and quarantine facilities for the industry.

As of January 2024, neither Cummings’ old property, renamed Bart’s Farm, nor the Capertee property are open to visitors or used for staff training.

In addition to these properties, in December 2019, $1.6 million was spent on The Grange, an 87-acre equestrian property on Oxley Island, near Taree and situated on the Manning River.

Some $3.4 million was also spent in December 2020 on a 120-hectare property, Glenferrie Farm, near the Southern Tablelands town of Crookwell. This is another farm that has been set aside for the use of Team Thoroughbred NSW, the welfare arm of the racing regulator. 

Complementing the rehoming properties, the organisation bought two farms to provide feed for the horses in their care, spending $7.15 million on a 163-hectare cropping property southwest of Singleton in 2022, and $2.73 million on a 392-hectare farm in the Bylong Valley the previous year.

Training and racing infrastructure

The most expensive purchase to date has been the acquisition of Bong Bong Farm at Moss Vale in the Southern Highlands.

Billionaire owner Paul Fudge of Waratah Thoroughbreds fame, transformed the 37-hectare property into a private training centre with 60 boxes, however, when coming to the market, some buyers were put off by strict zoning conditions, which meant the site could not be developed.

Racing NSW paid $22.5 million in July 2021 and hired renowned horseman Greg Bennett to offer pre-training from the property. There was limited take-up of those services and Bennett moved on after less than a year, with the site sitting empty until Ciaron Maher signed a lease in May 2023 on the farm.

In December 2022, Racing NSW spent $5.4 million on a 211-hectare site near Goulburn, which was a private thoroughbred complex owned by the late Alan Cardy and used by trainer Kurt Goldman. The Straight understands the property is undergoing renovations to allow metropolitan trainers an opportunity to lease the facility for horses not in full work. 

When it comes to training facilities, however, there has been major investment in properties in Scone, Kembla Grange, Hawkesbury, Gosford, 

In Scone, Racing NSW acquired property across 10 titles since 2019, totalling just over 100 hectares, which includes the racecourse, which is now leased back to the local club. While some of this land was given to Racing NSW – including the site that houses the local TAFE building – it has spent more than $12.5 million in the area that is dubbed the Horse Capital of Australia.

Although a master plan has been developed for the racecourse, no work has yet commenced on the site. The TAFE building, which was touted by Racing NSW as a future centre for staff training in the state, has not yet been developed.

Former leading jockey Corey Brown was recruited to coach apprentice riders at the college, but quit before Christmas, telling the Sydney Morning Herald he was frustrated by a lack of investment in the facilities in Scone.

Development applications for stages one and two of a centre of excellence were lodged and approved by the Upper Hunter Shire Council early last year.

Addressing a Scone Chamber of Commerce and Industry networking event in March, former Scone Race Club chief executive Steve Keene told the group he was hopeful the end of 2023 would mark the start of construction on stage one.

The first stage includes a stable complex comprising three, two-storey blocks that will each stable up to 100 horses.

Keene told the meeting that the initial redevelopment cost had escalated from $20 million in 2021 to $35 million, but the funding was secure.

The state government is contributing $20 million with Racing NSW providing $15 million. 

In the lower Hunter, Racing NSW bought the old Cessnock racecourse in 2020 for $3.5 million. It was announced this site would also become a pre-training centre, but it is yet to open.

Around Kembla Grange racecourse some 10 properties have been bought for more than $17 million between 2019 and 2022, to provide land for a dedicated horse precinct, which planned racetrack upgrades will supplement.

At Gosford, about $7.5 million has been spent on five properties adjoining the track, while at Hawkesbury almost $10 million was spent buying a stable block and land close to the track.

Similarly, at Warwick Farm more than $18 million was spent in 2022-23 on five properties with stabling, which have been leased to trainers. 

Elsewhere, the Moruya and Tuncurry-Forster racetracks were bought by Racing NSW and leased back to the local clubs while $1.13 million was spent on a three-bedroom property in Tamworth.

The spending spree hasn’t been confined to the regions, with Racing NSW buying two apartments in the Sydney CBD for a combined $2.31 million. Both are in buildings with pools, gyms and concierge services. 

However, one property Racing NSW has not yet been able to acquire is a site for a major training centre outside of Sydney. The search for suitable land – which V’landys said would be turned into the Newmarket of Australia – was mentioned in the Racing NSW annual report in 2019, 2020 and 2021 but no land has yet been bought.

With the possibility of training being moved from Rosehill to the state government-owned Horsley Park, 40km west of the Sydney CBD, it may be that Racing NSW is no longer searching for such a site.

The Straight has approached Racing NSW for comment on any “Newmarket-style” plans but didn’t receive any comment by the time of publishing.

Full list of properties purchased by Racing NSW since 2017

The full list of property acquisitions of Racing NSW since 2017 as accessed through state land title records.

The StraightStaff Writer

It’s one-way traffic in Scone as Victorian-themed street names axed

Road names in the Scone Racing Complex, a precinct owned by Racing NSW, have become an unlikely casualty in racing’s great feud.

The StraightWarwick Barr