Internecine warfare within racing’s peak governing body is blocking meaningful progress on national reform to prevent cruel treatment and mass slaughter of retired race horses, the authors of an industry-commissioned report on equine welfare have warned.
Simmering tensions around the board table of Racing Australia this week escalated into threats of legal action, with NSW Racing sending lawyer letters to other state racing authorities, accusing them of potentially unlawful conduct and demanding they produce internal documents and communications.
NSW Racing chief executive Peter V’landys confirmed the extraordinary step, which lays bare NSW’s suspicion that other states are conspiring with Victoria to either set up a rival racing body or otherwise sideline his organisation.
Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
“We are concerned that there may have been potentially anticompetitive behaviour, breach of fiduciary duty and unconscionable conduct by some of the other PRAs (principal racing authorities) and their representatives,” V’landys told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
“We have requested documents and information to ascertain whether that is the case. We sincerely hope that the documents and information show that no such behaviour or actions in fact took place.”
These documents include any communications with Racing Victoria where break-away governance arrangements may have been discussed. The state racing bodies have been given until Wednesday to produce the material.
Racing Victoria denies it is involved in any such plot against NSW but declined to comment on V’landy’s legal broadside. “We have provided an undertaking that we won’t comment on matters from the Racing Australia Board table, and we intend to honour that commitment,” a spokesman said.
As uncivil war rages between racing’s dominant states, former RSPCA chief scientist Bidda Jones and former Victorian premier Denis Napthine – two authors of a welfare report commissioned by the racing industry in response to revelations by the ABC’s 7.30 that retired race horses were being slaughtered on an industrial scale, and in some cases butchered for human consumption, expressed dismay that so little had been done at a national level to address the problem.
Dr Bidda Jones says at a time when national leadership is needed to address racing’s welfare issues, Racing Australia is in the process of self-destruction.Credit:Rhett Wyman
“It is pretty depressing,” said Jones, who now works with the Australian Alliance for Animals. “In terms of what was recommended a year ago and where we are now, I’m struggling to find anything significant that has been taken up or progressed.
“There is a huge cohort of people within the racing industry who want change and an incredible level of frustration.
“The problem is internecine warfare between Racing Victoria and Racing NSW. That is the crux of it.”
Napthine agreed. “Racing Australia is broken … it has moved from productive competition into destructive rivalry.”
Napthine, who worked as a vet before he entered politics, chaired the examination of the racing industry commissioned by the Thoroughbred Breeders Association and supported by trainers, bookmakers, jockeys and racing clubs.
Its principal recommendations were for Racing Australia to establish and help fund a new, national body dedicated to the welfare of thoroughbreds and for state and federal governments to create a national database to track horses through their entire lives. The report warned that unless the industry could demonstrate improved outcomes for horses, it would lose its social licence to operate.
The report and recommendations were published in November 2021. Four months later, Racing Australia replied with a three-paragraph letter rejecting the call for a new welfare body and referring the development of welfare and aftercare programs to the states.
In a rare show of unity, Racing NSW and Racing Victoria opposed the new welfare body on the grounds that it would create an unnecessary bureaucracy. “It was generally felt that a lot of these initiatives had already commenced and it was a matter for Racing Australia, rather than a separate group of people to duplicate what was already under way,” said John Messara, who stepped down as chair of Racing Australia in March after he was unable to reconcile state differences.
Napthine said that in the year since he handed a copy of his report to racing stakeholders, good welfare initiatives such as rehoming and horse tracing schemes have been initiated at a state level, but little achieved at a national level by either the federal government or Racing Australia.
He said Australia still has no national traceability scheme for horses and no national standards on how to transport horses or, when necessary, euthanise them. “Unless we do that, all we are doing is tinkering at the edges,” he said.
The feud between NSW and Victoria dates back to the establishment of The Everest as Australia’s richest horse race and what Victoria perceives as a NSW incursion into its spring racing carnival.
The Everest at Royal Randwick, which is run in the middle of Melbourne’s spring racing carnival, has become the biggest day on Sydney’s racing calendar.Credit:Getty
What arguably began as healthy competition to produce the best racing event has descended into mistrust, loathing and dysfunction around the Racing Australia board table, where Victoria and NSW each control enough voters to exercise a blocking veto over all decisions.
Under Racing Australia’s constitution, Victoria and NSW each control one third of board votes and the other states the remaining third. All resolutions require 75 per cent support to be binding.
Sources with knowledge of board deliberations said that at the most recent Racing Australia meeting last Monday, NSW used its veto to block a proposal to standardise the reporting of retirement, injury and fatality statistics.
Racing Victoria has publicly supported reform to the Racing Australia voting system to dilute the power of the two biggest states.
V’landys said Racing NSW had done more than any other state to improve equine welfare and blamed other states for refusing to adopt his state’s blanket ban on sending race horses to knackeries and abattoirs. “The other jurisdictions want to continue to take horses to these facilities,” he said. “While that is occurring we do not want to be part of that regime.”
On the NSW objection to data sharing, V’Landys declined to comment.
He said: “How can a board function when other people go out and leak information? I have never been involved in any boards, other than this one, where they do that.”
Colin Holt, Racing and Wagering Western Australia’s representative on the Racing Australia board, said his state supported most of the welfare report recommendations, including the establishment of a national traceability register, but Racing Australia had determined that each state was responsible for developing their own welfare programs. “My view is we just get on with it,” Holt said.
Under the Racing Australia constitution, WA controls only 4 per cent of the board vote.
A proposal for a national horse traceability register to track the ownership and location of all horses was the subject of two years of development consultation by a bureaucratic working group established by the federal government. It is currently before all state and federal agriculture ministers.
Bidda Jones said the slow pace of reform reflected the lack of resources committed to animal welfare by the federal government level and an absence of national leadership within the sport. “Racing Australia is in the process of self-destruction,” she said.
Denis Napthine said racing needed to following the AFL’s governance model and replace Racing Australia with an independent commission capable of promoting the best interests of the sport.
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