‘The saddest decision’: Gai Waterhouse slams call to sell off Rosehill racecourse

“I think it’s the saddest decision they’ve ever made”. Gai Waterhouse is outraged at the call to sell off the Rosehill racecourse.

Gai Waterhouse is outraged by the decision to sell Rosehill.

Hall Of Fame trainer Gai Waterhouse has slammed a proposed plan to rip up Rosehill Gardens to make way for a new Western Sydney community, labelling the move “a travesty and a great shame”.

Waterhouse, one of the industry’s straightest shooters, took aim at the Australian Turf Club (ATC) and the NSW government following revelations Sydney’s premier Western Sydney track could be gone within five or six years.

A radical proposal from the ATC being considered by the NSW government would see up to 25,000 new homes, a metro station, and a new school built on the site of the current track.

“I think it’s the saddest decision they’ve ever made,” Waterhouse said on RSN.

“I think the government are completely wrong, I don’t think they’ve thought it through.

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“They say they’ve done their due diligence (but) I bet there’s not one racing person there that has any idea.”

Rosehill trainers were informed of the proposal on Wednesday afternoon with profits from the $5b plan set to be reinvested into the industry if the move goes ahead.

Training, stabling, and spectator facilities at Warwick Farm, Royal Randwick and Canterbury racecourses would be upgraded.

Current Rosehill Gardens trainers would have the option of moving to a yet-to-be-built Centre of Excellence training facility, alongside the International Equestrian Centre, at Horsley Park.

Waterhouse, who trains out of Royal Randwick, the long term consequences of the plan have not been considered.

“Once you lose it you never get it back,” Waterhouse said.

Gai Waterhouse.

“The same thing happened in Paris when they lost Maisons-Laffitte. You don’t get the racecourse back.

“We have 650 horses at Randwick and it’s already capacity, and Flemington would be the same, they wouldn’t have as many horses but they’re capacity.

“All right, Horsley Park can do all this but that’s enormous money going in out there. Just tell them to look at it again, take a step back instead of rushing into it.

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“The government rush into things and they don’t take a deep breath and think about the impact on everyone that lives there, all the inhabitants, everyone.”

Waterhouse added Horsley Park would be unsuitable for training horses, calling it the “hottest place in the world, stinking hot”.

Australian Turf Club chairman Peter McGauran said the decision was made with the long term future of the sport in mind.

“If we don’t evolve as a sport and make hard decisions like this ... sport’s dying, we’ve seen that all around the world and racing jurisdictions are not immune from that,” he said.

“We believe we can leapfrog 50 years over the course of the next decade as we reconstruct metropolitan racing.”

Peter McGauran (left) with King Charles, Quern Camilla, Chris Waller and Neil Wilson at Royal Ascot in June.

He said the initial reaction from Rosehill stables was positive.

“The trainers have been very good, very open,” he said.

“Some of the first reactions range from ‘it’s exciting’, quote unquote, or to ‘you’ll have no objection’.

“Because they can see it’s impossible to say no. I know ... the loss of Rosehill is almost unimaginable, but you have to look at what it will bring the industry. We are not a threatened species but we have to change, we have to evolve and we have to have the best facilities for horses and people alike.

“They all understand the objective.

“It’s impossible to say no to $5 billion because you can restructure the industry and you can have a purpose built, from the ground up, new training centre with everything in metropolitan Sydney that you have at Ballarat and Cranbourne and Pakenham.”

Waterhouse questioned McGauran’s comments that the sale of Rosehill was “likely” to go ahead.

“Have you ever heard of a subtext? That’s it. ‘Likely’,” she said.

“But it’s not Peter, he’s not in charge, it’s the government that’s made the decision ... but I think it’s a thing that’s being pushed through and not being thought out properly.

“And I think it’s a travesty and a great shame and I think they’re losing a vital part of racing and a vital part of that whole area out at Rosehill.”

Originally published as ‘The saddest decision’: Gai Waterhouse slams call to sell off Rosehill racecourse