The Australian Turf Club is "set to take advantage of a gift from its forefathers in a bid to once again make racing part of popular culture in Sydney with an ambitious building project over the next decade," according to Chris Roots of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. The club will "rebuild its major racing and training assets, and add lights to Rosehill and Randwick as part of the project." The ATC's financial position will "allow it to self-fund much of the work." It plans to rebuild four of the five racetracks over the next decade. The project will be funded "initially by the sale of surplus land at Canterbury," which is believed to be valued at up to A$50M ($37.2M). ATC CEO Darren Pearce said, "If you wanted to put our racetracks in places where they are part of the community, we couldn't have picked four better sites. We want them to be world-class facilities on and off the tracks." The ATC will "further develop Rosehill and Randwick as lifestyle precincts to take advantage of their position as transport hubs, with light-rail and train networks right at their doorsteps." The projects "could feature clubs, hotels, retail and entertainment facilities." The plan has started with the rebuild of the Kensington track at Randwick. The next racetrack scheduled for a complete rebuild will be Warwick Farm at the end of '18. The course proper at the Liverpool track "will be rebuilt and a synthetic racetrack will be added" (SMH, 11/27).
