Drove past the advertisements today and thought is this fair dinkum. Now I am by no means the sharpest tool in the shed but I find the idea of selling off sections of land baffling. Yes there are very limited options when it comes to developers acquiring land for greenfield developments so close to the city off private ownership and no doubt the value of the sales will be representative of this, however this in itself is why I’m baffled. While the NZ racing industry has a number of serious issues facing it directly in the face around long term sustainability, being asset poor is not one of them. There is a reason why the potential investors would scramble over hot coals to pay big money for land like this so why would this particular club not be doing the same to retain every inch of land they have. If it was solely for a cash injection to develop other parts of the site then maybe, but surely higher levels of governance would be opening the cheque book to prevent the need to sell off assets for ever? There may well be very valid reasons to sell these particular blocks of land. Unitary plans, existing ground conditions, whether it fits long term with master plans etc etc but from an outsider looking in it seems a bit confusing.