BATHURST Harness Racing Club hopes a new $750,000 facility at its complex south of the city will encourage trainers to relocate from Sydney.
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The club is planning for work on the new training facility to be finished by the start of next winter after its development application was approved.
The DA was approved on October 15, but the club is waiting for a construction certificate to be processed before work can start.
The new facility, which will be next to the racetrack, will feature 60 stables that will be leased out to trainers.
“We expect to see trainers look to relocate from Sydney after the facility is built, because it can be too expensive in Sydney to have your own training facility on your own property,” Bathurst Harness Racing Club chief executive officer Danny Dwyer said.
“We hope the training facility will bring new people, with no background, into the sport. Here, they’ll have all the set up, ready to go.”
Racing moved from the Bathurst Harness Racing Club’s old home at the Bathurst Showground to the new $7.5 million complex on College Road in October 2014.
Bathurst Harness Racing Club signed a 99-year lease with Bathurst Regional Council for the 138-acre property, but the club has the option of buying the land after 10 years.
It’s been a two-year process to get to this point with the new training facility.
“It was always the club’s intention to build this training facility after the main facility was built,” Mr Dwyer said.
The new training facility will have access to the main track and stables at the facility will include wash bays for horses.
It will have a gravel parking area with 27 spaces and a horse float parking area.
A proposed training (jogging) track will have a gravel surface, with minor earthworks required, though the training track does not need to be flat and cambered like a racetrack.
The training track will follow the natural contour of the land and only sharp drops or inclines will be removed. The track may be slightly cambered for drainage.