Straight Up – Courses for horses

We’ve written a lot about racecourses in The Straight’s short history, from Rosehill to Randwick, Moonee Valley to Caulfield and Sandown, Eagle Farm to Doomben and Goulburn.

A natural tension exists between the value of a racetrack as real estate and as an asset to the industry is its current form and use. As race clubs have encountered challenges in their ‘core’ racing business models, they have looked to utilise the significant space which surrounds tracks to create revenue.

The area surrounding Caulfield is unrecognisable to what it was a decade ago, Moonee Valley is going in the same direction, while just recently, a seven-story hotel has been approved for the end of the Randwick straight. The pace of change at Eagle Farm has been so dramatic that horses have taken to shying at construction.

Rosehill and Sandown are special cases. They are huge parcels of land in the midst of a suburbia which by necessity is embracing greater density. The wide open spaces of a racetrack stand in contrast to the rising heights of the housing in the surrounding suburbs.

Both the MRC and the ATC are considering the closure of those tracks for mass development, shoring up balance sheets for the foreseeable future.

The proposal for Rosehill’s total closure and sale only came onto the agenda late last year. Before that, the surrounding area was part of a general state government plan for redevelopment, with the utilisation of a light rail station to build a suburb of 10,000 dwellings.

But does Rosehill need to shut to facilitate the 25,000 dwellings the state government wants? In the words of the kid on the Old El Paso ad, “Why Not Both?”

According to the Urban Development Institute of Australia NSW (UDIA), a peak group for developers, up to 20,000 dwellings could built around Rosehill without the need to close the track.

The long-running Sandown saga is currently before a state government committee which has taken 255 submissions on the redevelopment potential of the 112-hectare site.

Among those submissions was one by interim Racing Victoria CEO Aaron Morrison, who re-iterated the racing regulator’s support for the MRC’s decision to explore a redevelopment opportunity.

A public hearing by that Committee will begin on August 19. It will not be making any decisions about whether racing should continue at Sandown, with RV and the MRC to decide on that.

We are coming to the end of the racing season and this week’s Run The Numbers looks at the record number of sires who have had their progeny win stakes races in Australia in 2023/24.

The number – 201 – may surprise you when you consider that the number of active stallions in Australia has dropped 30 per cent over the past 10 years.

Meanwhile, Widden’s Zoustar has equalled the record for the most number of winners by a stallion in a single season.

On Monday, he moved to 208, the same number I Am Invincible had in 2020/21 and he has one further chance over the last two days of the season to set a new mark in his own right.

The Straight remains committed to providing the latest news insight and analysis of the racing, wagering and breeding industries. The commercial model is currently underpinned by advertising and we are very grateful to those businesses and companies who have supported us.

As we are looking to expand our offering, we are putting the call out for more advertisers. If you are interested in supporting The Straight and want to advertise with us or just see our rate card, please send an email to info@thestraight.com.au.

Regards

Bren O’Brien

Managing Editor and Founder

The Straight