Lee Curtis,another prominent Rosehill trainer,said if Waterhouse and Waller locked in against the deal,it was in trouble. “I don’t think anyone can say they’re in favour of it,” he said. “I don’t know anything about it. We had a quick meeting in November ... we haven’t heard zip since then.”
Richard Freedman,who also trains at Rosehill and did not attend the meeting,said he could not endorse the proposal without assurances trainers would move to a superior location.
“We want to know what we’re getting. We want to know what we’re being asked to move to. I want those details locked down – not going to be changed after we support or not support[the sale].”
Freedman acknowledged the deal was worth a lot of money. “But they’ve got seven trainers there whose lives are attached to Rosehill,” he said. “Those seven trainers are entitled to be looked after appropriately,compensated for the massive cost and upheaval this will be,and going to a training facility that is not ‘just as good’ but better than the one we’re at.”
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One option involves the government giving the Sydney International Equestrian Centre at Horsley Park to the ATC for a training facility. However,many trainers say the location 40 kilometres from the Sydney CBD is too far and too hot.
Under the ATC proposal announced in December,Warwick Farm would also be developed into a “state of the art” racing,training and spectator facility.
The ATC has scheduled a series of briefings with members and trainers in the coming weeks,and chairman Peter McGauran – a former federal Nationals MP – declined to comment while those consultations were ongoing.
But sources within the ATC and government played down the significance of Tuesday’s meeting,arguing only a fraction of the membership was present and that it was always expected to be the most heated of the sessions.
Waterhouse was scathing about the ATC’s directors. At Tuesday night’s meeting,she directed those present to stand up and expressed shock that two of the seven board members had not turned up to debate “the most important decision you’re ever going to make in your life”.
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“You expect us to get you out of that[debt] by selling off one of our greatest assets,” Waterhouse said. “Get out with your people who are on the track,and come and see what the trainers and the racegoers and the people who are your members want.”
The ATC expects to submit its unsolicited proposal to the state government late this year,and it would likely put that plan to a vote of members first. Ultimately,members must agree to sell the land – which is still years away.
The government and the ATC have signed a memorandum of understanding. Minns has never committed to building an additional Metro station at Rosehill,which is contingent on the deal proceeding. He instead described it as a “potentially historic plan” and a “once in a generation opportunity” to build more homes and secure the future of racing in NSW.
On Wednesday,a spokesperson for Minns said the ATC had brought the proposal to the NSW government,and “we will let the ATC continue talking to their members”.