$25 MILLION TO BE SPENT ON RE-VITALISING WARWICK FARM

THE Board of the Australian Jockey Club today (August 31) announced that $25 million would be spent on upgrading Warwick Farm Racecourse.

The major initiative involves new member, spectator, racing and training facilities being built under a Grand Plan for Warwick Farm that will see its future secured as a racing and training venue for decades.

This will be launched with William Inglis & Son Ltd purchasing 9.5 hectares of land from the AJC at Warwick Farm. Inglis has developed plans to build a state of the art giant covered sale ring with bars, restaurants, and stables for up to 1000 horses.

The AJC and Inglis will jointly build a 1,000 vehicle sealed car park only metres from the main grandstand.

AJC Chairman Ron Finemore, AO, said today that the Club would:

Refurbish and enclose the main grandstand,

Cover the betting ring,

Rebuild the race day stalls,

Renovate the existing tie up stalls

And add new tie-up stalls to replace those that were removed to make way for the new stables built for WYD and now used by Patinack Farm trainers.

He said the Club would also build a new pre-mounting yard parade area with spectator seating, reinstate the B-Grass track, revamp the course proper and construct 5km of light training tracks through the area now called the Polo Fields.

Special low price Warwick Farm-only membership packages will be launched to lure new racing fans and build on the family-friendly theme of the course that is located in the middle of more than one million residents.

Mr Finemore said all of this would be financed by the sale of other non core land and Coopers paddock as well as the Inglis sale once the Polo Fields redevelopment had taken place.