Racing: Cessnock track sold to Racing NSW as Newcastle redevelopment plan gathers pace

NJC boss Matt Benson confirmed on Wednesday that the transfer of Cessnock racecourse to Racing NSW was completed on Tuesday.

The deal appears likely to spell the end of race meetings at Cessnock. Racing NSW chief Peter V'landys said in June last year that Cessnock would be converted into a pre-training facility.

Benson said Cessnock meetings, about eight a year, would be held on the Beaumont track at Newcastle. Meetings have been regularly transferred to Newcastle in recent years because of the state of the Cessnock track.

"Obviously we hope this means an exciting future for that facility," Benson said of Cessnock. "The upshot is the funds that we received are committed to future facility upgrades at Newcastle. That was obviously a key part of the arrangement."

The NJC hopes to build 400-500 stables for on-course trainers at the Chatham Road end of the Newcastle Racecourse, where the raceday stalls now stand. The new stables would replace those at the Beaumont Street end.

Benson said a development application to build new raceday stalls off Lowe Street, near the 200m mark of the track, had been approved. He hoped ground works would start in early October and the stalls would be complete by next February.

The development will clear the way for new stables, although funding for that part of the plan has not been secured.

"There are still questions to be answered about future funding sources and Racing NSW are exploring opportunities," Benson said. "Newcastle has been part of the Hunter Valley equine centre of excellence strategy, which has been shared at state and federal government level. There's certainly hope there."

The Newcastle Herald reported in March 2017 the NJC's hopes to build a $20 million 508-stable two-storey complex. Benson said that plan was still the preferred option for the NJC, which had received widespread interest from trainers looking to potentially relocate on-course at Newcastle. The inquiries have included trainers from Singapore and New Zealand as well as interstate.

"Just with the jungle drums about the new development, the club has received numerous and consistent inquiries from trainers locally and internationally about relocating to Newcastle," he said. "We are going to start finalising some of those expressions of interest so we can track them and hopefully keep in touch with some stakeholders and let them know how we are progressing.

"That inquiry reflects not only what this place might become as an equine facility but also the location and lifestyle. The logical future for Newcastle is as the northern centre for training and racing outside of Sydney.

"We are looking at 400-500 stables, depending on what design we end up with and that is purely a funding and affordability decision. But our preference is for a 500-stable development which is two-storey.

"This land at Broadmeadow is worth a lot of money and the utilisation of this facility is going get more and more over time, so we want to be prudent with our use of a finite resource, so two-storey would be ideal."

The NJC hoped to use funds from the Cessnock sale towards the stable development and not the first-stage, day stalls build.

"We are working with Racing NSW in getting the day stalls completed, and our efforts are to try to do that without touching the money from Cessnock," he said.

As for the potential of gaining government COVID-19 stimulus funding for the three-stage stable plan, Benson said the project "should shoot the lights out in terms of its cost-benefit ratio" for the region.

"The economic impact of this development is massive and the cost ratio, which the governments look at in assessing if a project gives good bang for its buck, they get excited in any cost-benefit ratio that comes up as two or more and we sit at about 3.7," he said.

"So we like to think it will get a pretty fair hearing down the track, just because of the significant boost it will provide to local industry inside and outside racing."

He said no plans were in place for the existing stables but the site was "a valuable parcel that will hopefully have a future that will assure the club of its financial future".

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