‘Horsing heartland’: Merlin Park up for grabs for over $30m
One of the country’s largest racehorse training properties, Merlin Park, just over an hour south-east of the Melbourne CBD, has come onto the market for the first time in 18 years and may become a housing development site.
Hundreds of racehorses have been trained at the property in Victoria’s equine heartland, including champions Weekend Hussler and El Segundo. The facility has also worked with esteemed trainers such as Rob Griffiths, Mick Kent and Colin Little.
Dating back to the early 1900s, Merlin Park has been described as a “horsing heartland” with its tree-lined driveways, four-bedroom main residence, separate managers’ accommodation, equine facilities, and 68 main paddocks.
Merlin Park’s owners, Murray and Julie Sproull, are career horse trainers but have put the training ground up for sale to move closer to their children’s school. The property is expected to fetch more than $30 million.
Meanwhile, in a separate move last month, pub baron Bruce Dixon put his own “horse heaven” – Macedon Lodge, north of Melbourne – back on the market, also for more than $30 million.
Development play
But the two prominent properties may have very different futures.
Merlin Park is being marketed as a 54-hectare development play, given its position neighbouring some of the region’s largest master-planned communities.
On the other hand, Macedon Lodge is more likely to appeal to buyers searching for a private training facility that can produce race winners.
There are thousands of homes already built near Merlin Park, including Stockland’s 1100-home Evergreen Estate, Balcon’s 4500-home Orana Estate, and Brown Property’s 2000-home Riverfield Estate.
“It’s beautiful country and we’ve created an equine centre capable of agisting up to 120 racehorses at any one time across 68 main paddocks, of which 36 have horse boxes, and the 24 stables located across in the main facility,” Mr Sproull said.
“But when the zoning for the growth corridor changed in 2010, we could never have imagined homes being delivered at our back fence in such a short time. It’s an incredible pace of growth.”
Elders agent Carlo Taranto has been appointed to manage the sale campaign of Merlin Park.
“There are few greenfield land parcels of this size and quality, and we’re expecting to receive interest in excess of $30 million,” he said.
“As much as it is a premium equine property, Merlin Park also presents a significant land-banking opportunity on the border of the urban growth boundary, immediately adjacent to some of the region’s largest master-planned communities.”
