Gai Waterhouse will kick off proceedings in the parliamentary inquiry into the development of Rosehill, with the champion horse trainer to speak before the Upper House Committee at 10am on Monday.
Waterhouse has been a vocal opponent of the Australian Turf Club’s proposal to shut the Western Sydney racecourse and redevelop it and sell it off. In February, she said the ATC board “should be ashamed” and was “flogging” Rosehill off because they had “got themselves into debt”.
Her testimony before the Select Committee, which has formed to look into the details of the unsolicited proposal put forward by the ATC to the NSW government, will be the most anticipated on the first day of hearings at Parliament House in Sydney.
Trainer John O’Shea, another opponent of the ATC’s move, will follow Waterhouse in the opening session of hearings before the 10-person bi-partisan panel, which is chaired by opposition Planning Minister Scott Farlow.
Interestingly, neither Waterhouse or O’Shea are based at Rosehill.
The panel will also hear from David Hall, the ex-chairman of the Australian Jockey Club from 2005 until 2007, and Shayne Mallard of Liverpool City Council, in the morning session.
The post-lunch session will kick off with Darren McConnell from the NSW Racehorse Owners Association and include submissions from western Sydney representatives Adam Leto and David Borger as well as chief economist for the Centre For Independent Studies, Dr Peter Tulip.
Hamish Esplin, the President of Thoroughbred Breeders NSW, will speak before the panel at 3:15pm. Esplin heavily criticised the appointment process for the board of Racing NSW when speaking to The Straight in February.
The first day of hearings will be rounded off by Elio Celotto, the campaign director for anti-racing body, the Coalition For Protection of Racehorses.
Bren O’Brien
No members of either the ATC or Racing NSW are on the witness list for the first day. However, this is just the first of three days of hearings, with the others to occur on August 9 and September 12 at Parliament House.
Written submissions to the Committee closed on Thursday.
