The dream of a return for harness racing at Moonee Valley is over.
After more than 18 months of negotiations, the Moonee Valley Racing Club and Harness Racing Victoria closed the door on the possibility today.
A harness racing track will not be part of the huge redevelopment of the Moonee Valley site currently well underway.
MVRC chairman Adam Lennen said all avenues had been exhausted.
“The MVRC was open to exploring the opportunity for harness racing to return to The Valley as a feature of our redevelopment of our iconic racing precinct,” MVRC chairman Adam Lennen said.
“We thank HRV for their willingness and support to assess the viability of this project. We with them and all harness participants and fans every success in future.”
HRV CEO Matt Isaacs admitted the sentimental and emotional connection of harness racing to Moonee Valley made the decision very hard.
“I can officially confirm now that a return to The Valley won’t happen,” he said.
“We’d have loved nothing more than to have harness racing back at The Valley and this is a decision we haven’t taken lightly.
“It’s been a long negotiation process and our team worked tirelessly to explore all the possibilities, but the return on what would have been a huge investment just wasn’t going to be there.
“In the end, the commercial constraints and required timelines made it a bridge too far.
“I want to stress how hard we all tried to make it work and how fantastic Adam Lennen (MVRC chairman) , his committee and CEO Michael Browell were as we went through the process.”
Moonee Valley was the home of Victorian, and some would say Australian harness racing from 1976 when it replaced the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds until the Valley’s huge farewell meeting in front of a 20,000-plus crowd on February 6, 2010.
Since then, Melton, 45 has been Victoria’s premier track and hosted iconic races like the Inter Dominion, Hunter and Victoria Cups.
Talk of harness racing returning to Moonee Valley emerged as redevelopment of the site grew closer in late 2024.
Excitement grew within the Victorian harness industry at the prospect and romanticism of returning to venue where greats horses like Popular Alm, Gammalite, Maoris Idol and Scotch Notch, along with Hall of Famers like Vin Knight, Gavin Lang, Brian Gath and others created such memorable moments.
Some of the greatest moments included the Vin Knight-driven Popular Alm’s famous comeback win in the 1984 Italian Cup after a broken leg, having screws inserted and being sidelined for 18 months.
A year later, the great Preux Chevalier drew the greatest modern era crowd The Valley when the gates were closed at 38,000 when he won the Inter Dominion final.
Those moments, and all that Moonee Valley was to harness racing, is now forever consigned to history.
