If Peter V’landys ran the campaign to sell up Rosehill racecourse and replace it with housing, “the bulldozers would already be moving in”.
So declared one insider aligned to the state’s racing chief on the eve of Tuesday’s members’ vote to determine the future of the western Sydney track.
(From left) Trainer Chris Waller, Racing NSW chief Peter V’landys and Premier Chris Minns. Division over the future of Rosehill began almost the moment the proposal was announced.Credit: Graphic: Michael Howard
The Rosehill sell-off might have been a moonshot too many, though, even for V’landys, had he had the reins.
The plan divided the state’s $3 billion racing industry, becoming the subject of a high-profile parliamentary inquiry and fierce opposition from some of the sport’s most famous players.
On Tuesday, the proposal met its seemingly inevitable demise as online and in-person votes were tallied at Randwick racecourse, and 56 per cent of 7864 participating race club members opted against it.
The outcome looked clear when owner and legendary adman John Singleton left the meeting early, worn out by what he described as negativity in the room. However, the result was closer than anticipated.
John Singleton was among the attendees at the meeting to decide the future of Rosehill, but walked out early.Credit: Sam Mooy
Posting from inside the meeting, Independent MP Mark Latham claimed there was jeering directed towards Australian Turf Club chairman Peter McGauran, but that was angrily rejected.
“That’s Mark Latham’s distortion. He lives in a reality world of his own making, completely confected to suit his political objectives,” McGauran said.
“I was swamped afterwards for controlling a meeting that saw the best of ATC membership, civility, construction … yes, there were strong points of view on a couple of occasions, there was a response from the audience, but it was minor over more than an hour of speaker after speaker.”
V’landys isn’t untouched by the defeat. Racing NSW supported the sale behind the scenes, and the power he wields has also come under scrutiny as the Rosehill controversy became a proxy battle in a broader conflict over racing’s direction and leadership.
ATC chairman Peter McGauran leaves the meeting of members at Randwick racecourse on Tuesday.Credit: Sam Mooy
A disappointed Premier Chris Minns singled him out after the vote, saying, “Sydney could do with 10 Peter V’landys rather than one, and we’d be a more exciting, more dynamic city”.
As the racecourse’s owner, though, it was the ATC that devised and delivered the proposal, and it was behind the pace from the outset.
Minns and McGauran announced the proposal 18 months ago, and just weeks later, in February last year, blindsided turf club members gathered at Rosehill at one of several forums.
McGauran, a former minister in John Howard’s government, addressed members, as did renowned trainer Gai Waterhouse, who has eight wins in the Golden Slipper, Rosehill’s signature race, to her name.
Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys was praied by Premier Chris Minns on Tuesday.Credit: Kate Geraghty
But it was the reaction that day of fellow trainer Chris Waller – the man behind champion mare Winx’s record-breaking career – which turned the dial.
“Gai spoke up on social media nearly straight away, so you knew immediately that she was against it,” said Vicky Leonard, a member of the Save Rosehill group of trainers, owners and breeders, which challenged the sale process.
“Obviously Gai got up at that [forum] and was fairly aggressive, and she doesn’t mince her words.
“But a lot of people didn’t realise how upset Chris was until then. He’s a very considered person, and he’s also got a very close relationship to V’landys. So to have him speak out against anything that PVL endorses is pretty rare. That’s why it was quite staggering.”
Chris Waller’s resistance to selling Rosehill was a key factor.Credit: Racing Photos via Getty Images
Plans were then in their infancy, and it showed. Waller, whose stables are at Rosehill, reportedly said in a prepared statement that the designs presented looked like they had “just been whipped up overnight”.
The reception set the tone for what was to come, with opponents of the sale seizing on uncertainty over what the Sydney racing landscape would look like without Rosehill, and other unanswered questions.
A split on the ATC board and a public slanging match between McGauran and vice-chair Tim Hale over what price the track could fetch was another setback, as was a referral to the Independent Commission Against Corruption, even though it quickly dismissed concerns over Minns’ dealings with race club official and long-time friend Steve McMahon.
An entrenched distrust of racing’s institutions also played its part in the “No” vote win, as did the timing issues faced because of the urgency of deciding while a station could still be built on the new Sydney Metro West line.
While the vote was twice delayed, proponents of the sale recovered ground in the weeks in the run-up to Tuesday’s finish line as the ATC finally settled on a way forward.
Warwick Farm Racecourse would be redeveloped into a top-line metropolitan track at a cost of $800 million, and a golf course at Penrith would be converted into a fourth track for the city.
A loyalty scheme in which members would have their fees waived and receive $1000 food and drink credits for five years also seemed to hit the right note, despite being derided by opponents as a bid to buy votes. A new “lifestyle club” was also to be built at Randwick.
“There is a demographic that exclusively uses Randwick and they’re probably younger … I think the free membership and the $1000 [credit] has resonated,” said former ATC chairman and Macquarie Group executive director Laurie Macri.
“I’ve spoken to a lot of members … I was at dinner the other night with four of my mates, and they were all voting ‘No’. But between the four of them, they had six kids, all under 30, all live in eastern suburbs, and five had voted ‘Yes’ and one had voted ‘No’. ”
Prominent industry figures such as trainer Richard Freedman and Charles Kelly of leading horse stud Newhaven Park also publicly backed it this month, and V’landys moved to allay fears that Racing NSW would scoop up the proceeds.
In the end, it wasn’t quite enough.
Those who pushed for the sale point the finger at vested interests and misinformation for bringing it undone.
The role of Waterhouse, who fought it tooth and nail despite her bookmaker husband Robbie offering up land in western Sydney for a new track, was also significant.
McGauran admits the lack of detail provided to members until last month wounded the Yes cause but says it was the “nature of the beast”.
“Unfortunately, because it was an unsolicited proposal process, everything was back to front,” he said. “It was a land deal, so we couldn’t talk about it until the deal was done.
“We had nothing to show for months except those basic drawings. It was always the cart before the horse. I would have loved to have spent months planning it down to its final detail and then releasing it to members, but it was never possible under the confidential negotiations with the government.”
While Minns’ housing solution is out the window, racing will go on, the grandstands populated during carnival time and mostly empty at others.
With the ATC reliant on Racing NSW for top-ups from betting revenue, tired facilities in need of a revamp and McGauran worried about the sport’s declining social standing, the question for Sydney racing is whether it will regret knocking back a so-called deal of a lifetime.
The members, however, have spoken. As they say, that’s racing.
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