Racing at Sydney's second-best racecourse, Victoria Park, in the 1920s

Racecourses. When they're gone, they're gone. The case of Victoria Park

The enclosures, however, were not much larger than VP’s. Its location near Paramatta was an advantage. The STC had an instinctive understanding that western Sydney was to become its spiritual home. And the course was served by a terrific train service that landed racegoers on the racecourse platform in less than half an hour from Central.

The real mystery is why the STC chose Canterbury to be one of its primary acquisitions. It was still a mystery to Gary Lester, the author of the STC club history, The Essential Club, almost 70 years later. It was a dinky little track of seven furlongs with  the poorest drainage in Sydney. Meetings were often lost. It was some distance from Canterbury Station and those who did not fancy the ten-minute walk to the track entrance had to transfer to a shuttle tram. Its stands dated back to the First World War. All negatives – but there were shareholders of the old Canterbury company on the new STC board! Go figure.

Consolidation

The STC disposed of Moorefield in the early 1950s and Rosebery in 1961. Although much time and money was spent getting Canterbury up to speed, Rosehill remained the jewel in the STC crown. It added a six-furlong chute in 1947, the public Paddock/Leger Stand in 1958,  a  new Official Stand in 1961, Longworth Leger Stand in 1968, and a new Paddock Grandstand in 1978. The result was a first-class racecourse with first class facilities.

All this infrastructure, however, went under the demolisher’s ball when, in 1984, construction began on the JR Fleming Stand, designed to run the length of the straight and which transformed Rosehill, as a corollary, into a one-enclosure track.

The STC pumped much money into Rosehill in the last 20 years of its existence.  It is nowhere near its use-by date. It is now an ultra-modern, well-equipped, world-class racecourse that offers comfortable surroundings, great dining experiences and sweeping, uncompromised views of the entire racecourse to racegoers alike in the public and members areas, as well as the private boxes.

The STC went to its fate in 2011 having, to a considerable extent, made up for its Victoria Park boner.

Relocation

Speculation inter alia has been that funds from the sale of Rosehill would be used to build a new racecourse further west, and/or to redevelop Warwick Farm; that is, of course, if Racing NSW does not move to misappropriate the money, as threatened.

Such a relocation may prove a questionable choice, both in terms of functionality and heritage, if recent history is anything to go buy.

When Harold Park closed the developers who had bought it announced grandiose plans to mark the course of the old track’s running rail with a landscaped walking trail and retain the old semaphore board. Neither of those things happened . It is as though Harold Park, the home of Sydney trotting for 120 years, never existed.

The move to Menangle by trotting could hardly be described a spectacular success. (The same can probably be said of the analogous relocation of harness racing from Moonee Valley to Melton in Victoria).  Betting turnover on trotting has continued to decline. Hardly anyone attends the meetings at Menangle, whereas at Harold Park crowds remained reasonable until its end – and it still had atmosphere. The situation is not helped by the paucity of public transport. A train stops at the Menangle platform every hour or so (there are no racecourse  ‘Specials’). Any new thoroughbred racecourse constructed out in the hinterlands is likely to experience similar difficulties.

It is well documented, I think, that Nobody loves Warwick Farm more than I do. Saturday racing should certainly return there. Unfortunately, because of the neglect it has suffered for 40 years, and the creation of the Riverside Inglis complex, it is no longer fit to host group level race meetings. The massive car parks that could easily accommodate crowds of more than 20,000 in the 1970s and eighties are gone. Its one restaurant faces a wall.

One thing is certain. If the STC still owned Rosehill, there is no way its directors would be disposing of their beloved flagship. It was once known as the ‘Caulfield of Sydney’. If there were any move to sell off Caulfield, it is likely the barricades would go up in the Melbourne racing  suburbs.  The threat to Rosehill must be seen, therefore, as a consequence of the 2011 merger with the Australian Jockey Club.

The lessons of history

New South Wales racing cannot afford to repeat the Victoria Park blunder and lose once more its second-best racecourse. It must not take enormously far-reaching decisions based on plans drawn up on the back of restaurant menus over long lunches. More time must be taken, more research undertaken. It must selfishly pursue its own best interests, rule out decisions based on individual’s self-interests, not become involved in political abstractions or a contested housing policy (not everyone agrees that exploding the population of Sydney a la Mexico is a good thing). It must defend racing from Wokish sentiments that would see all racecourses (and all golf courses for that matter) closed. It must somehow safeguard itself from the lecherous intentions of  bloated, portfolio rich regulatory bodies. In short, it must save Rosehill.

IN 1952, the racecourse most regarded as Sydney’s best outside Randwick had not hosted a meeting for ten years. It covered an area of 116 acres. Its home straight of two-and-three-quarter furlongs was  almost 150 yards longer than Randwick’s and its mile-and-a-quarter course proper was so well contoured it had no need of starting chutes. It was 85 feet wide. It could comfortably accommodate fields of 26 starters. It was located on the site of a former swamp that had been reclaimed in 1906, leaving a sub-surface of deep peat mould that drained with biblical haste following rain. It encouraged a lush greensward racing surface considered the kindest to tender thoroughbreds joints found anywhere. Its enclosure lawns were magnificent. Many visiting Victorian trainers preferred to work their charges on it over Randwick. Randwick trainers often snuck their horses over there too. It had hosted a memorable weight-for-age clash between the champions Peter Pan and Chatham in the 1930s  and had been the home track for Bernborough during his Sydney years. It was quicker to travel to from Central Station than Randwick.

This racecourse was not Rosehill – it was Victoria Park. Vic Park, or ‘VP’,  occupied the block surrounded by South Dowling Street, Joynton and O’Dea avenues, and Epsom Road, in Zetland.

Why was Victoria Park lost to Sydney racing? There were, unsurprisingly, numerous factors, but then, as in 2023, a recently elected New South Wales Labor Government was one of them.

The former boilermaker Bill McKell led his Labor colleagues into power in May 1941, when the grimmest of the war years lay just months ahead. Racing would be much restricted -  it was said, in the national interest.

 There were nine racecourses used for thoroughbred racing in greater Sydney when McKell took over: Kensington, Victoria Park, Rosebery, Moorefield, Canterbury, Rosehill, Randwick, Warwick Farm and Hawkesbury. All but the last three were run by proprietary companies, owned by shareholders to whom dividends were paid. Rosebery had not hosted a meeting since July 1940 and the other former pony courses of South Sydney, including Victoria Park, were within 18 months of their last.

McKell had it in for proprietary racing. He later wrote this was due to when, as the local member, he visited stables around the proprietary racecourses in his South Sydney electorate, he witnessed the privations of trainers and their staff. Maybe, but an old-time Labor man’s antipathy to free enterprise probably came into it.  It was at least partly a political decision.

In 1943, McKell promulgated the Sydney Turf Club Act and hand-picked a board to run his creation on a non-proprietary basis. Its immediate job was to stage a few race meetings, but the big game was to select which of the proprietary racecourses it wanted to keep and get rid of the rest. The former shareholders were to be paid off by means of a compensation fund the government established.

Clearly the STC did not need six racecourses, nor could it afford to maintain them all. Some had to go. (This is a very different situation to the current Rosehill furore, where there is no pressing need to get rid of the greatest asset in the Australian Turf Club’s portfolio; keep in mind, it does not own Randwick.) But it was not handled very well.

The STC’s selection decisions were easy in some cases, difficult in others. Ascot was next door to the expanding Sydney Airport. Its grandstands were almost 40 years old. Because of the Airport’s proximity, height restrictions would be imposed on any new stands. Goodbye Ascot.

Kensington, the premier pony course of the 1890s, was on crown land and recent governments of both colours had been dis-inclined to renew its lease. Its stands were even older than Ascot’s. Moreover, it was situated across High Street from the AJC’s Randwick. This was a little too close for comfort for some of the STC board, who were already developing a sense of rivalry with their big brother.

Rosebery had been virtually rebuilt as recently as 1929. It was state-of-the-art, featured the only cantilevered stands in Sydney and was the best wet-weather course. Its drawback was its small enclosures and the presence at their rear of Gardeners Road, which it was clear would require widening not many years into the future. Nevertheless, the STC decided to purchase it as a training centre and possible Wednesday venue.

Moorefield at Kogarah was the southern-most course. It had a new (1926) Paddock Grandstand but was otherwise largely dilapidated. The course proper was small and undulating and notoriously ‘horses for courses’. Still, it offered some advantages and the STC decide to make it a temporary acquisition.

That left Rosehill, Canterbury, and Victoria Park. The STC was much influenced (some would say over-influenced) by reports on each of the available courses prepared by the Valuer-general’s office during 1943. While praising the racing facilities of Victoria Park, it commented that, to accommodate the enormous post-war crowds the STC anticipated, expensive, ‘vertical’ stands would need to be built. The expense was probably exaggerated, and more thorough estimates should have been prepared. Nevertheless, the STC was in negotiations with representatives of the Victoria Park company in early 1945. The Daily Mirror later reported that the STC directors had had ‘a clash of personalities’ with the VP Donohoes. Negotiations broke down. Egos prevailed.

Later in 1945 the Sydney Turf Club announced the sale of Victoria Park racecourse to the British industrialist Lord Nuffield for 205,000 pounds. Most commentators thought he paid top dollar. The STC could have got it for a song. Ironically, as it proved, it missed a ‘golden opportunity’, the Mirror lamented.

 Nuffield  turned VP into an automobile factory, though by special arrangement it remained available for training for seven years. The horses left it forever on 31 August 1952 – the last day of trackwork. Most of the trainers relocated to Rosebery or Randwick.

Victoria Park is now the boutique Green Square housing estate. The only remnant of the course is the old Paddock totalisator building. It is nice enough estate  to live in and visit, no doubt, but it should still be a marquee racecourse.

The blame for the loss of Victoria Park does not lie entirely with the STC and the NSW Government. Its owner James Joynton Smith had been eager to sell it at a reasonable price twenty years earlier to the AJC – but the AJC preferred to purchase Warwick Farm. It should have bought both.

Westward Ho

The STC probably had its eye on Rosehill all along. It was a large course with a long straight (though shy of Victoria Park’s), but its corners, especially into the home straight, were a little tight. Its modernist  steel grandstands were less than twenty years old.