Greyhound racing at Wentworth Park in Glebe ended on Friday 16 October, with a sell-out crowd for the final meeting. ABC News reported that 6,000 ticket holders were greeted at the turnstiles by animal rights protesters, who were celebrating in a park across the road.
The final race of the night was the Million Dollar Chase, described by The Guardian as the richest in the world. It was won by Magical Ang.
The Last Night at ‘Wenty’
John Hill from Orange, part-owner of Fearless Bandit, a dog in the final race, said he had been coming to the track for 45 years, according to ABC News. “It’s a bit of a shame, it’s been here for 90-odd years,” he was quoted as saying.
“It is quite heartbreaking to a lot of people,” said Geoff Rose, chair of the NSW Greyhound Breeders, Owners and Trainers Association, The Guardian reported. Rose said the closure was a sign of the times, with the Glebe land worth a fortune in a growing city.
Not everyone was sorry to see it go. “We are here to say good riddance to greyhound racing in the city,” Greens MP Kobi Shetty said, according to ABC News.
Ninety-Four Years in Glebe
Wentworth Park itself was created between 1876 and 1880 using silt dredged from Sydney’s harbour, The Guardian reported.
Greyhound racing started there in October 1932, according to ABC News. The early races were run on the grass, and a track with a mechanical tin hare was built in 1939 at a cost of 33,000 pounds.
Crowds of up to 15,000 once packed the track on a Saturday night and jostled to see champion dogs such as Qualinor, Zoom Top and Farraflash, ABC News reported. By the 1960s, with the advent of off-track betting, they had dwindled to a few hundred.
“It was part of the working class culture of the area,” historian Max Solling told the ABC. “The decline of attendance is wholly due to the TAB,” he was quoted by ABC News as saying.
In July 2016 then premier Mike Baird announced a ban on greyhound racing from July 2017, then reversed it three months later, according to ABC News.
Where the Racing Goes
In July 2026 the Greyhound Breeders, Owners and Trainers Association said it would vacate the site a year before its lease expired in September 2027, ABC News reported. Greyhound Racing NSW chief executive Steve Griffin said in July that the venue no longer suited participants, who are largely located outside the Sydney basin.
Racing will shift to Gosford for now, and Greyhound Racing NSW has announced a longer-term move to Richmond, in Sydney’s north-west, according to ABC News. The NSW government has promised $10 million to help the industry with the transition, the ABC reported.
The association is also exploring a site near Appin, according to The Guardian.
From Track to Parkland
The NSW Government says the 16 October race unlocks the redevelopment of the site into community sporting fields and public open space, as part of an expanded 14-hectare parkland.
According to the government, preliminary works, including early demolition of racing infrastructure, are expected to start before Christmas, while planning and approvals progress for the removal of the grandstand. Management of the site will then be transferred to the City of Sydney.
The government links the plan to up to 2,500 additional homes nearby.
More news from around the city is in Buzzline’s Sydney section.
Sources: ABC News, “Final race meet marks end of nights out at ‘Wenty'”, 17 October 2026 (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-17/final-race-marks-end-sydney-wentworth-park-greyhound-track/107273820); The Guardian, “Gone to the dogs: racing fans mourn closure of ‘Wenty’, Sydney’s historic greyhound track”, 17 October 2026 (https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/oct/17/gone-to-the-dogs-racing-fans-mourn-closure-of-wenty-sydneys-historic-greyhound-track); NSW Government, “Wentworth Park’s next chapter: more sporting fields and open space for the community”, 16 October 2026 (https://www.nsw.gov.au/ministerial-releases/wentworth-parks-next-chapter-more-sporting-fields-and-open-space-for-community)
JohnsonL623, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Wentworth Park’s concrete grandstand in Glebe, the home of Sydney greyhound racing until October 2026, pictured in December 2011.
