Resilience keeps racing club on track

JARRATT Farley stood knee deep in floodwater and watched a carp swim past the winning post at the Sandilong Park track.

He shook his head with a laugh.

In his role as Mildura Racing Club manager, he had grown to expect the unexpected, but the racing carp, well that was something else.

He and the electrician shut off the last of the power and abandoned ship as the waters rose.

A day later, the whole place was under.

Farley had taken on the gig in the middle of 2017 and has since had to navigate through two years without racing on the Mildura track due to COVID-19 lockdowns and a once-in-a-generation flood that completely inundated the course and the club’s facilities.

Talk about hurdles.

I took a walk around the course with Farley this week to not only see the damage left behind by the floods but understand just what it will take to get the club back on track.

The horse stalls, the sheds, track, bars and buildings, all of it went under, leaving a damage bill that is still being assessed by insurers.

Wherever you look, something needs repairing or replacing.

“You spot something new every day,” Farley said.

We stopped and went inside the Winning Post bar, which has been stripped bare after it sat in 900mm of water for about a month.

So extensive is the damage that the building is likely to be condemned, meaning the club will need to bulldoze it and start again.

But through adversity comes opportunity, with the club already dreaming of something bigger, better and, yes, higher, to potentially be built in its place.

All other buildings at the course are also stripped bare, including Farley’s office.

He now works from home, virtually as a project manager as the long restoration gets under way.

In just a few months since the waters have receded, though, big progress has been made.

The track itself is bouncing back and Farley is hopeful that racing could return to Sandilong Park by as early as August.

“That would require absolutely everything to go our way,” he said, adding that they wouldn’t race on the track unless it was 100 per cent right.

The work to get it to this point has been extensive.

After a Fraize Mower took off 6mm around the entire track to remove silt and weed impurities, it has been replanted with kikuyu grass, with rye soon to be planted, on top of their fertiliser program.

The grass surrounds have also recovered quickly.

But the club has already put a line through hosting its 100th Mildura Cup event this year, postponing it until 2024.

“We’d like to get back racing this year,” Farley said.

“The industry needs Mildura racing.

“We don’t get the wet weather up here in winter and horses like running on a Good 4 and a nice racecourse.

“So our aim is to get back racing so we can do our part for the industry.

“We have cancelled our Cup Carnival this year, which would have been our 100th, so that will be postponed and we are working towards our next big one being the 100th Cup next year.

“We are still holding out a small hope of hosting the Melbourne Cup day races again this year, but again, time will tell.”

Farley admitted when he took on the club manager role he could never envisaged what lay ahead.

“It goes without saying that it has been a lot more challenging than you think,” he said with a smile.

“You come in with ideas of how you can grow, and continue to grow, and it all be positive, but we’ve certainly been hit with a few bigger hurdles than most.”

So how has the club survived?

“Racing Victoria and the racing industry is huge and financially stable so they have been able to support us through the COVID years, especially,” he said.

“Through this flood Racing Victoria and the State Government are going to cover the cost of the track repair, so all the Fraize mowing and sowing, while the buildings and infrastructure damage is being covered by insurances.

“It is a resilient club.

“We are not a big club in terms of trainers and horse ownership and that sort of stuff, but we are building towards our 100th Cup.

“That says something.”