The champion trainer, who has 11 Group 1 winners under his belt, has acquired a 100-box facility, according to Racing.com.

But he will keep his stables at Flemington and South Australia.

"I'm so excited to move to Ballarat and the opportunities that provides, but it's a move I never thought I'd have to make," McEvoy told the racing website.

"I just thought with Caulfield closing down and the same potentially happening at Flemington it was time to make a decision on where the future of this growing business would be.

"Ballarat presented a great opportunity and as Colin Hayes used to say - 'The future belongs to those who plan for it'."

McEvoy told The Courier back in 2017 he was eyeing off a move to Ballarat if he could not secure more room at Flemington.

"I'm very serious about getting more boxes. It's going to be too restrictive for me to not have more boxes, so it's a matter of where those boxes become available really," he said at the time.

Construction is set to start immediately at the Ballarat Turf Club, which is expected to take up to a year.

McEvoy told Racing.com the move to Ballarat was to setup a future for his son Calvin, who is an assistant trainer.

"Calvin will be the future of the business and the plan is to have him probably based at Ballarat when it's ready, moving forward it will stay in the McEvoy Mitchell name as well," he said.

Ballarat Turf Club chief Lachlan McKenzie was quoted as saying the club was thrilled with the news.

"The Ballarat Turf Club is committed to providing our trainers with the best possible facilities, and Tony's decision to move to Ballarat is a fantastic endorsement of our Training Centre," he said.

"With our Synthetic Hill Track, new Polytrack, turf tracks and other extensive training infrastructure, Ballarat has a Training Centre to rival any around the world.

"We look forward to working closely with the team at McEvoy Mitchell Racing to construct a state of the art stabling and training complex that will provide Tony and his team with everything they need to continue to grow their business and enjoy even more success on the track."

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