A group of candidates for the Melbourne Racing Club board are threatening to spoil the organisation’s plan to end horse racing at Sandown Racecourse and redevelop the sprawling venue as a new suburb for 16,000 people.
The racing club, which also operates Caulfield Racecourse and the track at Mornington, wants to stop racing at Sandown, have it rezoned for housing and then sell the land. That sale, which would be worth at least hundreds of millions of dollars, would help pay for a major redevelopment of the Caulfield facility.
Shanyn Puddy at Sandown racecourse in Springvale on Friday. She is opposed to the racecourse’s redevelopment for housing, and is standing as a candidate for the Melbourne Racing Club board to stop the plan.Credit:Penny Stephens
Under the racing club’s plans, the racecourse and the sprawling land surrounding it would be completely replaced with 7500 new homes – 2250 townhouses and 5250 apartments – built across the 112-hectare site. If completed, it would be Melbourne’s single biggest housing development.
“Keeping the track at Sandown is my key issue,” said Shanyn Puddy, a licensed syndicator who buys and sells shares in horses. She is among eight candidates running for election to the racing club’s board.
Four of the eight candidates running for election so far oppose the redevelopment in its current form. The group is hopeful its allies can gain enough seats on the nine-person board to scupper the plans.
“Sandown is one of the best racetracks in Australia. We’ve got an amazing asset there, and I just don’t see the sense in why we would sell it,” said Puddy. She said developing half the site for housing or other purposes would still allow racing to remain.
Sandown racecourse in Springvale.Credit:Joe Armao
Puddy and others opposed to the redevelopment plan said it has not been properly put to the racing club’s 10,000 voting members for their say on whether to proceed with shutting down racing at Sandown. “Members need to have a say,” she said.
Melbourne Racing Club chief executive Josh Blanksby declined to comment about the upcoming board elections. In 2021, Blanksby said Sandown was a financial black hole that lost the club $5 million a year. Voting in the election closes at the end of the month.
Also running for the board is Nick Hassett, another candidate opposed to the course’s complete closure. “We’ve got over 100 hectares and you don’t need 100 hectares to run a racecourse,” he said.
There has been a racing track on the Sandown land, in Springvale, since 1888. The current racecourse was built in the 1960s, and is the only professional-standard thoroughbred racing facility in Australia with two tracks – the Hillside and Lakeside courses. It also houses a motorway.
An artist’s impression of the 7500-dwelling development that would replace Sandown racecourse.Credit:Melbourne Racing Club and NH Architecture
The grandstand at the racetrack, built in 1962 for the motor racing circuit, was heritage listed in 2019 and would be retained as part of any development.
There would be 14 per cent of the site set aside for parkland, and the remaining 86 per cent would be developed mostly for housing, but also incorporate a retail precinct and community facilities including a primary school and kindergarten.
Greater Dandenong Council has argued that developing a new suburb with an estimated resident population on the land of an expected 16,000 people might create traffic congestion.
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