Hickmott is relocating his major training base from Caulfield to a new complex to be built on-course at Dowling Forest by the Ballarat Turf Club.

His 25-box facility is part of a development which will also have existing Ballarat-based trainer Melody Cunningham as a tennant.

Hickmott has been forced to find a new home for his training operation owing to the pending closure of the training centre at Caulfield.

He is following in the footsteps of Andrew Noblet, who moved from Caulfield to Ballarat early last year.

Hickmott looked at other options at Cranbourne and Pakenham, but had no hesitation choosing Ballarat.

He said not only did it offer the best environment and training facilities for his horses, Ballarat was also a comfortable commute from his home in Gisborne.

While Ballarat will be Hickmott's principal training base, he will also continue to oversee mega owner Lloyd Williams' large team of horses prepared at Macedon Lodge.

Hickmott was head trainer for Williams from 2009 to 2017, winning Melbourne Cups with Green Moon (2012) and Almandin (2016).

He renewed the partnership early this year.

This will not be Hickmott's first association with Ballarat.

He has had horses pre-trained at Dowling Forest in the past on a limited basis.

Hickmott praised the efforts of Ballarat Turf Club on what it had to offer trainers.

"The hill track's very advantageous for staying horses, and for conditioning horses.

"We've spent time with Lloyd (Williams) working on the hill at Macedon and it's something I'm very used to. That transition will be easy.

"There's just so much variety."

"Who would have thought 20 years ago that Ballarat would be the choice of destination for many trainers. It's a very progressive club, doing everything to cater for the trainers' needs and with still more to come."

"It's going to evolve as time goes on and continue to get better."

BTC chief executive officer Belinda Glass said it was excting to be welcoming multiple group 1 winning trainer Rob Hickmott to take up residency alongside some of Victoria's most prominent stables.

Hickmott, who has about 100 horses on his books, will continue to do a lot of pre-training at a property at Gibsorne, mixing that facet of his operation with Ballarat.

As a pre-training element, Hickmott said one of the most important offerings of the uphill track was lung conditioning and developing lung capacity in a young horse.

Hickmott believes staffing will be the biggest challenge he faces with the move.

He said since COVID-19 had hit, meeting staffing needs had been a major issue across the industry, with no internationals arriving and movement between states restricted. "We'll be on the look-out for some good people.

Hickmott's move continues an influx of new trainers to Ballarat.

As well as Noblet, there has been the arrival of two of the nation's biggest operations in the training partnerships of Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, and Tony and Calvin McEvoy.