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"Historic vandalism": Whateley appalled with Moonee Valley demolition
Gerard Whateley • October 27th, 2025 6:09 pm
I’ll express this opinion only once and then forever hold my peace.
What they’re doing at Moonee Valley, ripping up that track, is complete sporting madness.
They are making a fortune.
It’s a decision that is pure genius in the boardroom and on balance sheets but it’s historic vandalism from a racing perspective.
Of all the things that can’t be done in Victorian racing because of tradition, we are dismantling the theatre that has provided the greatest drama the sport ever saw in this state.
Everyone is trying to be positive because billions of dollars are being made, and the worst comparisons are being made - like ground rationalization from the VFL days to now, but that’s not it.
If that was true, Moonee Valley racing would be moving permanently to Flemington.
Or whenever they renovate and rejuvenate a major sporting venue, it’s invariably better.
That would be fine if they were rebuilding the grandstand but not the track.
This is a redevelopment that sacrifices racing at the altar of commerce.
When you watch the replays of these unforgettable Cox Plate's how can you discount that the epic nature of these races owes to the track itself.
The saucer, the short straights and constant turns, the trigger to go at the school, the lurching and crabbing and slingshotting off the bend and the short and desperate run for home.
That’s how we got Bonecrusher and Our Waverley Star.
It’s why Kingston Town couldn’t win but still did.
That’s why Saintly, Filante, Juggler and All Our Mob are frozen together in history.
It gave us the Winx blitz.
The cannonball run of Sunline.
And the rumbling earth under Might And Power.
For all the talk of the amphitheatre and the roar of the crowd and the adrenaline-charged thrill, what seems to have not been asked is what if it’s the track?
Of course it’s the track.
There’s 105 years of evidence to tell you it’s the track.
Yet that’s being ripped up and reconfigured - as if everything will be fine when the straight is near twice as long.
It breaks my heart what they’re doing at Moonee Valley.
Not only messing with perfection but ruining it.
The Cox Plate will never be the same.
Hopefully it’s still great.
I imagine it still crowns champions and creates legends.
I love a new stadium more than most.
I’m sure the grandstand will be spectacular.
But the spectacle - and that’s what Saturday was - will never be the same.
What if we just sacrificed the greatest theatre in sport to build inner city apartments.
We paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
That’s how I feel this Monday.
I’ll never speak of it again.
But when they tell me we can’t change the dates of Victorian racing because it’s how things have always been done here, you’ll forgive if I roll my eyes.
