1 day Ago By Danny Russell
Six months after unveiling its $160 million upgrade of Caulfield Racecourse, the Melbourne Racing Club is still directing stable staff to unload horses in a car park because its new purpose-built drop-off zone is too small. The costly design flaw means there is not enough room for trainers to unload their horses from their floats or park their transport vehicles inside the racecourse precinct as was intended in the plans. Stable staff walk horses from a car park at Caulfield Racecourse into the purpose-built float drop-off zone.
It follows revelations in June that the MRC was spending $650,000 to renovate its brand-new male jockey rooms at Caulfield because they were too small to accommodate riders on a busy race day. The club has also been heavily criticised over the positioning of its new $64 million mounting yard area, with the Australian Trainers Association calling it a “poor experience” for owners and saying it should be moved back in front of the members’ grandstand. Racing returns to Caulfield this Saturday for the group 1 Underwood Stakes.
During the meeting, horses will be unloaded in the Maple car park, on the corner of Station Street and Kambrook Road. They will then be walked past a boom gate and into the racecourse before being led through the newly built float car park to the subterranean tie-up stalls. An MRC spokesperson defended the process, saying Maple Car Park – the old members’ car park area – was now “exclusively a horse movement and industry zone”.
“There has been no patron entry at the western end of the racecourse for quite some time,” the spokesperson said. When asked if the designated drop-off zone was another expensive mistake, the MRC did not acknowledge any concerns. An artists’ impression of the Caulfield development which shows the new float park in the top left corner.
Instead, the club said there had been a phased rollout of the new float park. The club said the next phase would be tested during track gallops next week. “There will be significantly more space for float parking available for use once the rollout of all phases have been trialled and deemed operationally ready,” the spokesperson said.
But 10-year MRC member Anthony Del Monaco, who represented a group of MRC members at the Heritage Council hearing on Caulfield Racecourse in 2022, said it appeared to be a “failure of planning process”. “The controversy over the movement of the mounting yard, the jockeys’ rooms and now the float car park just goes to highlight how poor the communication and planning processes have been here,” Del Monaco said. The development of the western end of Caulfield Racecourse, which contains the float park and a new office block, created considerable angst in January 2022 because builders destroyed heritage buildings and cut down 42 trees, including an Aleppo pine grown from the seed of Gallipoli’s Lone Pine .
The construction work followed a controversial Christmas Eve amendment in 2021 by then planning minister Richard Wynne, which overruled local council and heritage planning controls and removed any right of objection. Heritage trees were cut down with chainsaws, prompting the interim protection order. Credit: Scott McNaughton “Concerns were raised before building commenced that the proposed float car park was too small and not fit for purpose and no-one took any responsibility,” Del Monaco said.
“The end result was destruction of green space, trees and heritage structures for an asphalt float car park that wasn’t ever going to work and appears as though it hasn’t been properly assessed.” The MRC has long planned to move all racing activities such as horse movement inside Caulfield Racecourse, which is Crown land, so that it could develop surrounding freehold land for housing. This includes the Kambrook Road precinct that was formerly used as a training base for leading trainers such as Peter Moody, Mick Price and Ciaron Maher.
Stable staff walk horses out of Caulfield Racecourse on Tuesday via a designated float park area. Credit: Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images MRC plans show that the Maple car park had been set aside for housing and public space, not for float parking. When asked if horse trucks and floats would continue to park outside the racecourse walls, the MRC said it would not be making any further comment.
The MRC is in the middle of an election process, with six candidates vying for two vacancies on the club’s board. The positions were created by the retirement of chairman Matt Cain and six-year board member Mark Pratt. Voting opened last week and will close on September 24, with the two successful candidates to be announced at the MRC’s annual general meeting on September 26.
The MRC’s master plan has become a central issue in the election . Three of the six candidates – Sheamus Mills, Peter Brown and Cameron Fisher – have outlined in their statements that they are opposed to a $250 million plan to replace the glass-fronted Rupert Clarke grandstand at Caulfield. The three also support racing continuing at the MRC’s Sandown Racecourse.
The three remaining candidates are Craig Gardner, Paul Johnson and Colin Madden. Johnson says he will support the members’ decision on Sandown as well as the future development of Caulfield. Madden says his focus is ensuring the MRC has a board that works “cooperatively for the benefit of the club members”, while Gardner says he wants “strong governance and continued improvement to achieve excellence at all three racecourses”.
The MRC will host its two biggest meetings – the Caulfield Guineas and the Caulfield Cup – next month. News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport are sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter .
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