{"id":250311,"date":"2025-07-09T08:49:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T08:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/250311\/"},"modified":"2025-07-09T08:49:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T08:49:11","slug":"australian-turf-club-chairman-resigns-after-failed-rosehill-racecourse-development-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/250311\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Turf Club chairman resigns after failed Rosehill Racecourse development plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The architect of the failed plan to sell off Rosehill Racecourse for a mini-city of 25,000 homes has resigned early as chairman of the Australian Turf Club, declaring in a parting shot that the abandoned $5 billion deal was a \u201clost opportunity\u201d.<\/p>\n

Peter McGauran was appointed to the ATC board in 2022 and has resigned before his term expires in January 2026, but said he would be judged as being on the right side of history for pursuing the controversial proposal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Peter<\/p>\n

Peter McGauran has resigned as chairman of the Australian Turf Club. Credit: Sam Mooy<\/p>\n

McGauran, a Howard-era Nationals minister who has had various roles in the racing industry, led the pro-Rosehill sale faction on the ATC board despite staunch opposition. His resignation comes just over a month after members voted 56.1 per cent to 43.9 per cent to scrap the plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Wednesday evening, McGauran said his decision was made while \u201caware of the challenges for the ATC ahead\u201d, and his belief that a new chairman was needed to guide \u201cnew initiatives\u201d for the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remain convinced the potential sale of Rosehill Gardens was a lost opportunity for the club and the wider racing industry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a fully transparent and vigorous debate, and I am grateful to the 44 per cent of ATC members who voted in favour of the proposal. I believe history will judge the decision to pursue the vision as having been the right one.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plan, which would have cost the state government $5 billion, was meant to be a major part of Premier Chris Minns\u2019 solution to Sydney\u2019s housing woes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Minns said on Wednesday he would have \u201cloved\u201d McGauran to stay on as chairman, and celebrated the man as a \u201cgentleman\u201d in the face of the tough public debate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The architect of the failed plan to sell off Rosehill Racecourse for a mini-city of 25,000 homes has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-250311","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114822418577045485","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}