Wentworth Park's Greyhound Track Just Got an Exit Date: 16 October

Greyhound racing at Wentworth Park has a closing date. The final meeting will run on Friday 16 October 2026, almost a year earlier than the September 2027 lease expiry announced when the park's transformation was first revealed in December 2025.

The NSW Government has reached an agreement with the Greyhound Breeders, Owners and Trainers Association (GBOTA) to bring the exit forward, clearing the way for redevelopment to start sooner. Under the deed, the GBOTA is required to be off the site by 30 November 2026, with the final meeting timed six weeks earlier so it can double as the venue's biggest send-off. The farewell meeting will feature the Ladbrokes Million Dollar Chase, billed by organisers as the world's richest greyhound race, closing out 94 years of racing at the site since 1932.

Acting Minister for Lands and Property Kate Washington said the agreement marked the start of a new chapter for the site: "The Minns Labor Government is delivering on its commitment to return this land to the community, creating new sporting fields, more open space, thousands of new homes and lasting community infrastructure for a growing inner Sydney."

The former 3.9-hectare racing track will be restored, cleared of racing infrastructure and transferred to the City of Sydney. It becomes part of an expanded 14-hectare Wentworth Park, with new community sporting fields and public open space. Preliminary restoration works are expected to begin before Christmas 2026.

Planning Minister Paul Scully said the expanded park would support the housing growth already under way across Ultimo-Pyrmont, including up to 7,300 new homes flagged across the wider precinct when the plan was first announced. Our December post noted 2,000 of those homes at the old Fish Market site, where Mirvac had been named preferred tenderer for a proposal including 1,400 homes.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore welcomed the news, posting that Wentworth Park will be "back in community's hands even sooner than we expected," after years of campaigning for the site to be opened up for public use.

Saturday metropolitan greyhound racing moves to Gosford from 17 October 2026, then to Richmond once the GBOTA's original lease would have ended in September 2027, until a new Sydney Metropolitan Racing Precinct is built. Greyhound Racing NSW says it expects to confirm that location before the end of the year. The government has also allocated $10 million to the Greyhound Capital Grants Program to upgrade other tracks across the state.

This is the final piece of the wider Blackwattle Bay transformation flagged when the plan was first announced in December 2025: the new Fish Market, a new ferry stop, upgraded light rail, and now the parkland itself, almost a year ahead of schedule. Thousands of new homes are planned or approved across Ultimo-Pyrmont and the wider Blackwattle Bay area, with comparatively little green space to match. This is the piece that changes that.