D-Day arrives: Rosehill mini-city proposal rejected

Rosehill Gardens racecourse’s mooted transformation into a massive new housing development has been dealt a fatal blow by members of the Australian Turf Club narrowly rejecting a proposal to sell the course to the NSW government for $5 billion at a fiery meeting on Tuesday afternoon.

The decision marks the end of what Premier Chris Minns and other backers had labelled a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity to sell the course and develop it into a new “mini-city” of 25,000 homes, and is a major setback to the government’s plans to ease Sydney’s housing crisis.

Minns, who has championed the proposal since it was first announced almost a year and a half ago, called the rejection “a golden opportunity that slipped through our fingers” and said the reasonably close result was “bittersweet”.

“I think it’d be really disingenuous of me if I just said ‘oh, no big deal’. I think it would have been great for Sydney,” he said.

Minns said the decision “should not take the wind out of the sails” of bold housing ideas for the state, and there were ideas in the works that would “ruffle a few feathers”.

Asked what his Plan B was, Minns said proposals had been put forward for more housing close to Sydney’s CBD but were not ready to be announced. “Not everyone will love them, but they are absolutely necessary for Sydney,” he said.

Peter McGauran, the ATC chair who drove the proposal, faced down immediate calls to resign after the result, and warned thoroughbred racing would suffer after turning down a potential $5 billion pay-day.

“I believe that Australia’s racing is quickly becoming a niche sport, and this missed opportunity will further accelerate that decline,” he said.

High-profile ATC members including John Singleton, Debbie Kepitis, the part-owner of Winx, and NSW MP Mark Latham were among the several hundred who piled into the ballroom of Royal Randwick just before 2pm on Tuesday to decide the fate of the historic western Sydney course.

The meeting heard a statement read on behalf of trainer Gai Waterhouse, a key opponent of the sale, in which she described the proposed sale as “deeply wrong”.

“There has been no integrity in this process, no accountability, no leadership,” she said in the statement.

The proposal was defeated 56.1 per cent to 43.9 per cent, with 4413 votes against it and 3451 votes for, after several months of campaigning and multiple delays.

The lead-up to the vote was marked by a series of missteps and delays which deeply divided the racing fraternity in Sydney. The ATC board itself was split over the proposal, and high-profile racing identities including Waterhouse spearheaded opposition to the sale.

Singleton, the owner of famous mare More Joyous, left one hour into the voting process and not completing his vote, saying he had “lost interest”.

“I’d vote yes, but I gave it away – by that point, I lost interest,” said Singleton.

When asked if his vote was a waste, Singleton said: “For $5 billion for a bit of rotten land up in Rosehill, I didn’t like going at all. If you had asked the people to stand up, who went to Rosehill in the last five years, it would prove my point,” he said.

John Singleton at an ATC vote on future of Rosehill racecourse on Tuesday. Credit: Edwina Pickles

The racing legend joked that “the average age is 110”, and the atmosphere as “very negative”.

During the meeting, Linda Huddy, a prominent owner, read out a statement on behalf of Waterhouse in which she dismissed the argument the sale was a once-in-a-generation opportunity, labelling it a “spin line that’s been repeated like a marketing campaign”.

“The lack of transparency has been staggering,” Huddy told the meeting on behalf of Waterhouse.

ATC chair Peter McGauran leaving Tuesday’s vote on the sale of Rosehill Racecourse, which he had spearheaded. The vote was defeated.Credit: Sam Mooy

“Crucial details have been hidden until the last minute. Key documents were only released under pressure … Directors we voted in don’t even remotely support this proposal.

“What should have been a members-first process has turned into a PR exercise run by a handful of people behind closed doors.”

The proposal presented to ATC members on Tuesday changed significantly from the plan first announced by Minns and McGauran in December 2023.

What was initially presented as the ATC selling or developing the land itself morphed into a request for the government to buy it for $5 billion. Plans to purchase a new metropolitan racecourse to replace Rosehill instead became an $800 million upgrade of Warwick Farm Racecourse and a plan to purchase Penrith golf course.

The vote itself was delayed on three occasions, including in March, when industry regulator Racing NSW used its powers to block it over concerns the ATC had not given members enough information.

That intervention infuriated opponents of the sale who believed it would have easily won the vote.

Following the delay, the ATC presented a significantly updated proposal which included sweeteners such as free memberships and $1000 food and drink vouchers for members for five years. Those offerings were labelled an “inappropriate incentive” by opponents of the deal, but McGauran defended it as a “loyalty program”.

McGauran said the “radical change” he wanted to deliver from the sale would now be off the table and warned that the “social standing” of racing will be further diminished.

NSW MP Mark Latham arrives to vote on a proposal to sell Rosehill racecourse.Credit: Edwina Pickles

“We’ve all got young nieces, nephews, daughters, sons who don’t want to have anything to do with racing – there is a turning of the social tide about competitive animal sports and racing is not excluded from that,” he said.

“So we have to be aware of what we can do in the community and not just be seen as a gambling entity.”

But he faced immediate calls to resign from NSW MP Mark Latham, an ATC member and vocal critic of the plan who is on a 12-month good behaviour bond after an outburst at Rosehill this year.

“This has been his signature project. He’s pioneered it against all the evidence, and I mean that whole process was upside-down,” he said.

The split within the racing community over the proposal became a proxy for a broader fight over the influence of key figures including powerful Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys. After the vote was defeated Minns, unprompted, lavished praise on the racing boss.

“He’s a doer. He’s someone who grabs initiatives and pursues them, and that kind of can do philosophy to the way it goes about his work is amazing to watch,” he said.

“I think Sydney could do with 10 Peter V’landys rather than one.”

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