THE Moonee Valley Racing Club will rely largely on the potential growth of Friday night racing to fuel its major redevelopment plans for a complete transformation of the track and viewing facilities, reports The Age. It says: The club yesterday announced its masterplan that will result in a new track, with new dimensions, being laid with the home straight shifted from McPherson Street to Wilson Street and the current grandstands being bulldozed to allow a new housing and retail shopping site to
THE Moonee Valley Racing Club will rely largely on the potential growth of Friday night racing to fuel its major redevelopment plans for a complete transformation of the track and viewing facilities, reports The Age.
It says: The club yesterday announced its masterplan that will result in a new track, with new dimensions, being laid with the home straight shifted from McPherson Street to Wilson Street and the current grandstands being bulldozed to allow a new housing and retail shopping site to be built by the spring of 2017. The plan for a redeveloped track, new grandstands and facilities was formulated with night racing very much in mind.
Just as Happy Valley in Hong Kong has a weekly night date throughout the season, Moonee Valley wants to shore-up the night racing market in the face of opposition from a new night-racing course at Cranbourne from early 2012. It will have a permanent Friday night date over the warmer months.
''We certainly see night racing as the future for Moonee Valley and, ultimately, we'd like to see Friday night racing at the track every week for the 26-week night racing period from grand final eve through to the end of March,'' club chief executive Michael Browell said yesterday.
The club is hoping to continue to attract a bigger local crowd to night racing but the club expects that another pay-off from the Friday night date could be through new international markets via television and other electronic sources.