Some wonderful news has been released this morning with an $11m upgrade planned for the Broadmeadow track at Newcastle over the coming seasons.
Minister for Racing, the Hon. George Souris spoke in depth this morning with Sky Sports Radio’s Andrew Bensley about the project which is yet to be given a start date.
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The official announcement will be made at the track tomorrow during Newcastle Gold Cup day which is the second day of their annual two day carnival.
There will be two major parts of the upgrade with the first of these being the construction of a new state of the art turf racetrack on the inside of the Broadmeadow course.
This track will be 20 metres across and be able to accommodate 14 race starters per event which will enable racing on both the inner and outer tracks.
According to Minister Souris, the track will be the highest of quality and they will use the best technology at their disposal to make it a quality track in any weather.
Minister for Racing, George Souris announced the good news this morning
The inside track will be built on similar dimension to the track at Rosehill however it was described by Minister Souris as “similar to the Kensington track at Randwick”.
The second part of the upgrade will take place on the course proper and is a complete renovation of the current track which will no doubt make things easier for the trainers in the Newcastle Region.
This upgrade will enable the current track at Newcastle to be removed of any bias or imperfections that it currently has and give every horse a fair opportunity to win all races.
These two part extensions will not detriment racing in the Newcastle Region during construction and racing will continue all throughout this period.
This is due to the fact that once work begins on the course proper, racing may commence on the new track which would have been completed prior to the upgrade on the original track.
Newcastle is the fourth highest populated base in NSW for trainers and number one outside of the metropolitan tracks.
Although the working conditions in Newcastle are solid at present, this upgrade will further help Newcastle racing and the team of trainers up there including Dynamic’s own, Darren Smith.
Darren Smith trains a number of Dynamic horses including dual Gr1 winner Atomic Force and this upgrade will enable him to use the best facilities at any time.
Darren Smith is happy with the news
Darren already has an impeccable record both in the Newcastle region and when he brings horses to town but this news can only help him in producing more winners for team Dynamic.
Minister Souris has stressed that the Newcastle tracks will get the highest quality turfing and drainage possible and further cements Newcastle’s position at the #1 provincial track and training facility in Australia.
This $11m upgrade of the Newcastle track will be the first of many improvements made to Country and Provincial racing in NSW after the race field legislations court win.
Congratulations should go out to the Minister for Racing George Souris, Racing NSW Chairman John Messara and Racing NSW CEO Peter V’Landys for distributing the money to the right places with a large amount going to Provincial and Country tracks.
For more updates on the Newcastle Upgrade, please keep an eye on the Dynamic News section of the website as well as Twitter and Facebook for updates on the development.
Jay Mathieson