Minister is hoping for a flood miracle

By Kath Gannaway
WHILE nothing is yet set in stone, Minister for Racing Denis Napthine spoke in Biblical terms last week of a rescue package for the flood-stricken Yarra Valley Racing Centre.
“What we need is a parting of the waters,” Mr Napthine told long-suffering YVRC chairman Barry Coulthard and CEO Brett Shambrook, Mark Close from Racing Victoria and Rod De Bomford from Country Racing Victoria.
Looking down the still-muddied straight, the minister was told that changed flow patterns of flood water from Steels Creek had inundated the track and spectator areas five times since September last year.
The Mail reported on 15 February that Melbourne Water was predicting it would be another five years before the Steels Creek catchment would recover sufficiently from the 2009 bushfires to cope with predicted flows.
The club has not raced thoroughbreds since September and Mr Shambrook said it would need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on what would amount to a Band-Aid repair of the track to get the club operational again.
Instead, they put a case for a total redevelopment of the track arguing anything less would continue to put the club at financial risk, and potentially present a risk to jockeys and horses.
“The proposed track reconstruction would address the current issues of a negative camber and address any future inundation issues, effectively creating a levy around the entire course,” Mr Shambrook said.
A multi-million dollar ‘unclaimed dividend’ fund, which Mr Napthine said the government would expect to be matched 50/50 with the three racing codes, looked a likely option for funding the project on which “pick a number” estimates for the purposes of the discussion were as high as $3m.
Mr Shambrook believes Yarra Valley Racing has the credentials to warrant, apologetically, jumping the funding queue.
“We were on target to achieve package sales in excess of $1.2 million in the 2010-11 season, the largest of any country club in the state,” he said.
He said the Christmas meeting had more corporate package sales than the Warrnambool Carnival.
“Given the substantial risk to the club and the industry, we believe that the course proper should be reconstructed immediately,” he said, imploring a reprioritisation of planned capital works in favour of the full track reconstruction at Yarra Glen.
There was some reassurance with Dr Napthine acknowledging the success of the club and its value to the local economy, as well as to the racing industry. “You would have much less chance of jumping the queue if you weren’t a successful club,” he said.
The minister told the Mail his department would continue to work through the Minister for Water Peter Walsh and with Melbourne Water to find a solution to the ongoing threat of flooding.
“We understand there’s a range of difficult issues, so there’s a need to look at the capacity of the creek, and look at ways to hold back the waters,” he said stating that the most important thing to do is look at a “proper” redevelopment of the whole facility. This is a great asset to Victorians and to racing and we need to get it right,” he said.
“We can’t leave it in this limbo.”