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Future of training at Caulfield, Cranbourne and Pa

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    Posted: 22 Oct 2018 at 12:53pm
Update from Giles Thompson:

I write to advise of today’s announcement by the Victorian Government regarding the future of racing and training at Caulfield Racecourse.
 
The Government, in consultation with Racing Victoria (RV), the Melbourne Racing Club (MRC) and the Caulfield Racecourse Reserve Trust, has today announced:
  • That thoroughbred racing will continue on Crown Land at Caulfield Racecourse for at least the next 65 years with the execution of a new lease; and 
  • That thoroughbred training must cease at Caulfield Racecourse by November 2023 to allow the Crown Land currently occupied for training and by racing stables to be converted into multi-purpose facilities for local community use. 
RV and the MRC agreed to accept the Government’s position on the following terms which have been granted:
  • That existing Caulfield trainers be provided with five years’ notice to relocate; 
  • That the Government contribute $17.5 million in funding towards a Training Relocation Package to provide for the necessary infrastructure to accommodate Caulfield trainers at alternative training locations; and 
  • That the lease allows for the future development of Caulfield’s racing facilities, including the provision for a second racetrack. 
To provide certainty for affected trainers, the Government has today committed to make a significant investment into the development of new training infrastructure at the Cranbourne Training Centre and Pakenham Racecourse.
 
Cranbourne and Pakenham were identified as the training centres likely to welcome the vast majority of Caulfield trainers due to their location south-east of Melbourne, their high-quality training environments and their ability to accommodate additional stables.
 
We welcome the Government’s $17.5 million funding contribution and between RV and the MRC we have committed a further $22.6 million to deliver the facilities which will benefit current and future trainers and allow the two south-east training centres to collectively accommodate up to 600 additional horses.
 
The $40.1 million training relocation package will be used to deliver new and upgraded training tracks, stables, equine swimming pools and infrastructure at Cranbourne and Pakenham, and to transition trainers from Caulfield to these locations.
 
RV, the MRC and Government are committed to ensuring that relocated trainers can access facilities at least the equal of Caulfield at both venues and remain active participants within Victoria’s $3.2 billion thoroughbred racing industry.
 
With plans to commence upgrades as soon as possible at Cranbourne and Pakenham, it is expected that the first wave of facilities will be ready to start receiving Caulfield trainers by late-2020 should they seek to leave Caulfield earlier than required.
 
Whilst debate on opening-up Caulfield Racecourse Reserve to greater community use has been occurring for many years, we understand that today’s news will be difficult for local trainers, whom we have spoken to this morning, and their stable staff and we are committed to supporting them through this process. This includes maintaining the Caulfield training facilities at their current standard over the next five years.
 
An extensive consultation period will commence next month with Caulfield trainers to help each plan for their future training needs and the relocation of their businesses. This will include any discussions with trainers who may wish to relocate to a Victorian training centre other than Cranbourne or Pakenham.
 
Governments, both state and local, have long considered the opening-up of Caulfield Racecourse Reserve to greater community use, which is consistent with the Crown Land reservation for the site.
 
With the recent introduction of the new Caulfield Racecourse Reserve Trust, the State Government has sought to end the ongoing speculation about the future of training and all parties have accepted that it is time to provide certainty for trainers and the community.
 
There will be a number of people within the industry that wished to retain training at Caulfield, however this was an inevitable outcome at some point given all the circumstances. That is why we have negotiated commitments from Government to support the affected trainers and to secure the long-term future of racing at the site.
 
We are pleased that the long-term future of racing at Caulfield has been secured with a new 65-year lease and together with the MRC we are committed to maintaining Caulfield as a world-class racecourse. Indeed, this new lease provides the industry with the opportunity for continued investment in racing infrastructure and facilities at Caulfield, including the provision for a second racetrack.
 
As we continue through what has been a very successful Spring Racing Carnival with terrific racing and record wagering, I want to take this opportunity to again thank you for your participation in Victorian racing.

Yours sincerely,
 
Giles Thompson
Chief Executive
Racing Victoria

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tontonan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Oct 2018 at 1:17pm
I don't know why exactly but that article leaves me with the feeling that Sandown is doomed.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Shawy38 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Oct 2018 at 1:27pm
Been in the pipeline for 20 years
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Softy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Oct 2018 at 8:34pm
Plants that like an akaline soil base should thrive when the stables are gone anyway.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Einstein Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Oct 2018 at 8:39pm
Originally posted by Tontonan Tontonan wrote:

I don't know why exactly but that article leaves me with the feeling that Sandown is doomed.
Plans are already with the council for subdivision once the cars finish in 2020
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote anabel Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Oct 2018 at 8:59pm
Always know it’s bad news when an email from Giles drops into the inbox.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Tontonan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Oct 2018 at 9:10pm
Thanks Albert.  

It will be very sad to see it go .  I have been more or less resigned to it's demise since the new Pakenham was built.   I'd hate to think what that subdivision is going to be worth.  $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Shawy38 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Oct 2018 at 10:34pm
This is from Nov 2017

Each year when the Spring Carnival curtain is drawn at Sandown, thoughts turn to when - if - the curtain will be drawn on the track itself.

The Melbourne Racing Club says the 'talk' has stagnated since the first rumblings in 2015 that the club would sell it off for about $500 million as a residential site.

"The story has really gone nowhere," says MRC racing manager Jake Norton. "It hasn't really been discussed for probably two years."

A lack of 'discussion' doesn't necessarily mean plans have been scrapped, but shelved. They are not necessarily the same thing.

A hitch to the potential sale of Sandown is that racing's various master plans are entwined and not all can be achieved.

For instance, in order to absorb the 30-plus meetings staged at Sandown each year, the MRC would have to run them somewhere else, and that would mean the creation of a second track at Caulfield; and probably the introduction of night racing to best spread it.

A second track at Caulfield can surely only be built if the trainers are evicted and the centre space - of varying training tracks, a tower and so on - is re-shaped.

The trainers have been on a five-year eviction cycle for more than a decade; once the decision is made, they have five years' grace.

The pressure to rid the track of trainers and their hundreds of horses also comes via relentless pressure from the Glen Eira Council, which imagines the infield of this Crown land as parkland.

Night racing at Caulfield - and Flemington - was only viable had former Racing Victoria Chairman David Moodie been able to execute his dramatic plan to have Moonee Valley, the night racing hub, sold off for housing. He failed.

Despite these constraints in potentially selling Sandown, which the MRC owns, the rumblings are always there.

In July 2016 the V8 Supercars and Confederation of Australian Motor Sport were convinced the horse track, which surrounds their car racing track, was a goner. The cars' tenancy ends in 2019.

"Early in the next decade, latest," Supercars CEO James Warburton told state government in 2016. "It is inevitable."

MRC Chairman Mike Symons in part appeased concerns that year when he advised the club's members that the sale of the track was 'one of a number of options' but far from a given and that no trigger would be pulled without member approval.

To many, the financial upside of the possible sale of Sandown is dwarfed by the track's myriad of upsides.

"It's only been around since 1965," said trainer Pat Carey. "The guys who built it, the vision they had, would roll in their grave if it went by the wayside.

"It's our best track and our point of difference. They've really let the amenities go out there and it makes me cry."

Fellow trainer Mick Kent is a passionate supporter of Sandown. Rather than imagine it gone, Kent imagines the possibilities; 1000 horses absorbed from Caulfield, a spacious synthetic track to replace the car track, uphill training, a staff and jockey academy, Living Legends horses, maybe even the wildcard idea of using the train, which arrives at the track's doorstep, to transport horses across town and beyond to avoid road traffic.

"Sandown is where the population is. It's an affordable suburb. Staff who work at Caulfield and Flemington get paid $800 and pay $600 in (home) rent," he said.

"Where would the Sandown meetings go? There is nowhere. Sandown is the industry's greatest asset, its best and fairest track. Sandown should be seen as the future, not the past. Keeping it is a no-brainer."

When the track opened in 1965, in the middle of winter, more than 50,000 turned up. There will be far fewer on Saturday but crowds have long been a poor barometer of relevance.

When the MRC says 'Don't worry, nothing to see here', it might be on the money because so many master plans must all click for Sandown to be scrapped and agreement among our clubs is historically like herding cats.

And while there is both passion and vision from those in its corner, the Noble Park site may yet remain an epicentre for horses, not houses.
Matt Stewart Racing.com
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote early4lunch Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Oct 2018 at 10:11pm
No wonder.Caulfield was an embarrassment.The stench of manure and unkempt external gardens made residents justifiably irritated as well as their exclusion from practical use of the park.RV should be commended for having Cranny and Pakenham training centres so well advanced.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Shawy38 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Apr 2021 at 4:27pm

McDonald dynasty set to end at Caulfield

Ben Sporle

Ben Sporle@bensporle

1:43pm

, (

A famous dynasty at Caulfield will come to an end as Clinton McDonald is set to relocate his team of horses to Cranbourne, amongst the upcoming closure of Caulfield’s training centre.

McDonald and his late Father Ross enjoyed many years of success training gallopers from Caulfield and admits he will leave with a heavy heart and great memories.

“We have to leave Caulfield which is a real shame, it is going to be a sad day,” McDonald said.

“We’ve been very fortunate we’ve had Weekend Hussler and Regal Roller and a number of other Group 1 horses so hopefully the same can continue at Cranbourne.”

With Nick Ryan the latest to close the doors on his Caulfield stables last week, plans are well afoot for existing trainers to relocate.

McDonald joins a growing list of trainers on the move to Cranbourne, with fellow Caulfield trainers Mick Price and Michael Kent (Jnr) also in the process of having stables built on course.

Cranbourne is set to become home to close to 1000 horses in training in the next twelve months making it the biggest training centre in Australia. The Cranbourne Turf Club has predicted a ‘full house’ sign may need to go up in the near future as the Club and its Committee think through a possible expansion.

The CTC has recently installed a new 1700-metre grass training track to accommodate for the influx of horses.

The Club expects McDonald’s stables to be completed by June.

“It is exciting times ahead, we have a new barn being built with 32 boxes,” explained McDonald.

“We will have all the mod cons, horse walkers and treadmills and it looks like it is going to be a beautiful facility.

“The training tracks down there look fantastic and really looking forward to getting down there.”

McDonald’s stable star Diamond Effort returned with a typically honest second placing in Saturday’s Robert Taranto Handicap (1000m).

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Shawy38 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Apr 2021 at 1:30pm

Since the Melbourne Racing Club's announcement in late 2018 that training would cease at Caulfield, residents were forced to start making plans to relocate their stables.

Two-and-a-half years on and many of them have made plans to relocate or have already packed up and set-up new training bases.

An original timeline of late 2023 was given for the closure of training at Caulfield but Racing.com understands there is a possibility this could be brought forward.

Below is a list of Caulfield-based trainers past and present and where they are now or where they plan to relocate to:

  • Andrew Noblet - Ballarat;
  • Brendan McCarthy - Pakenham (Heath Hill);
  • Byron Cozamanis - Morphettville;
  • Ciaron Maher and David Eustace* - TBC (current bases at Ballarat, Warwick Farm, Cranbourne, Pakenham - Cavallino Estate);
  • Clinton McDonald* - Cranbourne;
  • Colin Little* - Pakenham;
  • Colin Scott* - Pakenham;
  • Gemma Reilly* - Pakenham;
  • Geoff Wheeler* - TBC;
  • Gerard Moloney* - Cranbourne;
  • Grahame Begg* - Cranbourne;
  • Henry Dwyer - Ballarat and St Leonards;
  • John Moloney* - Cranbourne;
  • John Sadler* - Pakenham;
  • John Salanitri - Tylden;
  • Lloyd Kennewell* - TBC;
  • Luke Oliver - Cranbourne and Romsey;
  • Matt Lindsay* - Pakenham;
  • Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr* - Cranbourne and Warrnambool;
  • Nick Ryan - Flemington;
  • Peter Gelagotis - Moe; and
  • Robert Hickmott* - TBC (current bases: Mount Macedon, Romsey, Ballarat).

* Currently training at Caulfield

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Shawy38 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Nov 2021 at 7:08pm

The horse population at Cranbourne's training complex will swell over the next month as Caulfield-based trainers relocate to their new homes.

Clinton McDonald was the first Caulfield-based conditioner to begin the relocation process, moving into his Cranbourne boxes a week ago.

"We expect a number of other Caulfield trainers to follow suit over the next two to three weeks including Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr, Grahame Begg, John Moloney, Lloyd Kennewell plus Ciaron Maher and David Eustace," said Cranbourne Turf Club chief executive Neil Bainbridge.

The influx of Caulfield-based trainers to Cranbourne will see the training centre stable more than 1000 horses, which is consistent with the club's master plan that was created more than five years ago.

"There has been significant investment over the last couple of months in the facilities out at the training centre," Bainbridge said.

"We've added two grass tracks, we've upgraded the synthetic track to a polytrack, we've added a second pool, which has actually got two lanes in it and we've added another sand track.

"In many ways we've built another training centre for the extra couple of hundred horses we've got coming out here. We're very confident with our facilities and our staff to deliver a fantastic facility for those relocating trainers.

"That's another big bonus for the local racing industry but the local community as they'll generate significant financial impacts with stables doing many of their purchases from the local region."


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