Calls for houses to replace horses at Rosehill to meet city’s targets

Top business figures have ramped up calls for houses to replace horses at Rosehill as punters on the weekend snubbed the track for the running of Australia’s second richest race.

• Sydney punters ready for Big Dance

Top business figures have ramped up calls for houses to replace horses at Rosehill as punters on the weekend snubbed the track for the running of Australia’s second richest race.

A crowd of only 10,493 attended the $10 million Golden Eagle at Rosehill on Saturday.

Two weeks earlier at a sold out Royal Randwick more than 49,000 packed the stands for The Everest.

The Australian Turf Club has an unsolicited proposal process underway with the NSW Government to transform the Rosehill racecourse precinct into a mini-city, serviced by a Metro station, which would deliver billions of dollars to the racing industry.

Business leaders are excited.

“This is a once in a generation opportunity, the chance to deliver 25,000 homes during an escalating housing crisis that holds significant challenges for Sydney,” Urban Taskforce CEO Tom Forrest told this masthead.

“The ATC and the Government deserve praise for their vision. It was never going to be a unanimously popular proposal.

“But for the racing industry in NSW it’s a moment in time to secure their financial future, selling a declining, loss-making but much cherished facility and moving to a new location.”

Business Sydney Executive Director Paul Nicolau said a Rosehill redevelopment was an opportunity “that instantly stands out as one that should be embraced wholeheartedly”.

Golden Eagle Day at Rosehill racecourse today. Punters enjoy a big day of racing in Western Sydney. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

“A thriving racing industry is important to Sydney, important to NSW, and this proposal could see them secure their financial future while creating new assets and investing into other existing facilities,” he added.

“Rosehill has been much loved but the crowd on Saturday compared to the fans who attended The Everest at Randwick? That has to tell you something.

“Rosehill will also help to deliver our city’s housing targets and would blend perfectly with the ‘three roads strategy’ of Business Sydney and Business Western Sydney for higher density housing along a redeveloped Parramatta Road, Victoria Road and Great Western Highway.

“We’ve already seen the positive impact of the Sydney Metro extension through the heart of the CBD.

“It is now possible to visualise what it would mean to Western Sydney to have a station at Rosehill on the Sydney Metro West line that is currently under construction to link the Sydney and Parramatta CBDs with 21st Century public transport.”

Punters enjoy a big day of racing in Western Sydney. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

There has been opposition to the proposed sale from within racing quarters, led by Rosehill-based Chris Waller and fellow trainer Gai Waterhouse.

Waller has said: “Parramatta, it’s the centre of Sydney geographically. I think it would be disrespecting the west if the racetrack was taken away from them.”

Waterhouse also told a NSW Parliament Select Committee on the redevelopment proposal in July: “Rosehill is in the centre of Sydney…it sustains a very large betting and population that go to Rosehill.”

The crowd comparisons between Rosehill and Randwick, and the ATC’s plans to establish new and refurbished racing facilities elsewhere in the west and southwest of the city if the sale goes through, provide a counter to those concerns.

ATC Chairman Peter McGauran wrote in a submission to the Select Committee in July: “Racing, training and stabling facilities funded from the proceeds of the development would secure Sydney’s place as a leading thoroughbred racing jurisdiction.”

He outlined how the proposal had the potential and scope to include a new training Centre of Excellence at Horsley Park, the redevelopment of Warwick Farm racecourse as a state-of-the-art racing, training, Member and spectator facility, along with improvements elsewhere.

Sites across Sydney would also be investigated “for a new, world-class racecourse”.

McGauran wrote that “analysis has clearly established that funds generated from a rezoned racecourse with a Metro Station would secure the financial future of the ATC into the next century.”

Not everyone wants to racetrack to be taken away. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

As sentiments run high, Business Western Sydney Executive Director David Borger said a Rosehill redevelopment would be “a win for the long-term vision for Western Sydney in creating both housing and jobs”.

“Having a Metro station at Rosehill would be a pivotal opportunity for economic revitalisation and sustainable growth,” he said.

“It would be a catalyst for new business opportunities that would serve to boost the local economy.”

McGauran has confirmed the Club’s membership will have the final say.

“If the members vote against the sale that will be the end of the proposal,” he has said. “The members vote will be respected.”

The unsolicited proposal is now in stage two. Valuations will be finalised and plans to establish new and alternative facilities confirmed before any recommendation to sell is put to the ATC membership, likely in early 2025.

A simple majority would be required to pass any resolution, and if the proposal was endorsed it would head back to Government for final approval.

Premier Chris Minns welcomed the proposal when announced last December claiming the sale of Rosehill and the development of a mini-city in its place, in the midst of a housing crisis, was a “once in a generation opportunity”.

The Committee for Sydney also got behind the project, saying it supported the potential redevelopment “as a density well done precinct”.

Rosehill has a storied history in the annals of Australian racing.

Todman won the first Golden Slipper at Rosehill in 1957.

Phar Lap made his racing debut at the track in February 1929 and won there for the first time in his fabled career two months later.

But the most telling page in the history of Rosehill potentially has yet to be written.