Racing NSW has spent the past 18 months buying up land around the track, with the next step to build state-of-the-art training facilities.

The move is aimed at attracting trainers eager to enjoy a slice of the rich prize money on offer in Sydney.

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Racing officials have already received interest from country, interstate and even international stables, with New Zealand and British trainers looking at Kembla Grange as a potential base.

The plan has been pushed by Racing NSW chief executive Peter V'landys, the Illawarra product eager to see racing prosper in the region.

"We're doing a master plan of all the land bought to put in double-story stables and facilities," V'landys said.

"It's designed to bring in trainers from provincial and country areas. We've had a lot of enquiries from trainers in New Zealand and satellite stables from England.

"Our prime aim is to make sure all our trainers down there have sufficient stables. The first purchase we made was leased to Robert Price, he's had a very successful last few weeks and months."

V'landys' vision comes as Kembla Grange trainers enjoy unprecedented success in the sport's biggest races.

Kerry Parker's Think It Over is a Group 1 winner, while Robert and Luke Price's Count De Rupee was narrowly defeated in the $7.5 million Golden Eagle.

The gelding will line up in next week's $1 million The Gong at Kembla Grange.

Trainers have also benefited from the introduction of the Midway race for provincial and smaller city stables.

The region's trainers welcomed the planned investment, but said improvements to the track surface must be a priority.

Upgrades to the B-track, largely used for trackwork and barrier trials, were set to start in late 2019, but work is yet to commence.

"I think it will be great," Theresa Bateup said. "Going forward, you would be hoping there's additional trainers and stables here.

"It will lead to an improvement in the training facilities and we might get those upgrades to the B-grass and course proper that desperately need doing.

"At the moment, I wouldn't be having any extra trainers here until we have that work finished."

V'landys accepts course upgrades are required to handle the increased training load from new stables.

While Newcastle has benefited from track improvements throughout the past decade, progress at Kembla Grange has been slower.

"Our two biggest cities outside Sydney are Newcastle and Wollongong," V'landys told the Mercury. "We want to have a strong presence in our next two biggest cities.

"That's why we've spent a lot of money on Newcastle, we spent $12 million on the track, and already $6-7 million at Kembla Grange and there will be another few million to fix the track.

"One of the things we look for in racing is the track's got to be conducive to competitive racing. Kembla Grange is modelled on Randwick, it's one of the best tracks for competitive racing.

"That's why we took some of our big meetings down there when COVID hit. We had no hesitation going to Kembla Grange because it's conducive to competitive racing. By fixing it and giving it better drainage, we'll take it one level higher."

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