Matt Galanos has been dumped as Australian Turf Club chief executive in a senior management shake-up under new chair Tim Hale.
As a new-look board led by Hale attempts to put the bitter feud over the failed $5 billion sale of Rosehill behind it, Galanos became the first high-profile executive casualty with his dismissal confirmed on Tuesday.
As reported by The Straight on Monday, speculation had been rife for weeks that Galanos’ future at the ATC was under a cloud as it was revealed that the CEO was on personal leave during the early part of the Sydney spring carnival.
Tim Rowe
Hale acknowledged Galanos’ contribution to the ATC which includes overseeing the construction of the Winx Stand and the multi-deck car park and taking out communicable disease insurance years ahead of the Covid pandemic.
“Our Members and the great sport of thoroughbred racing are at the heart of the Australian Turf Club. We are committed to building stronger connections, being more transparent, and creating new ways for our Members to help shape the future of their club,” Hale said in a statement.
“I want to thank Matt for his long service to the ATC, first as CFO and then as CEO guiding the club through some very challenging times. We wish him nothing but the best for the future.”
Steve McMahon, the ATC’s head of corporate affairs and government relations, had been acting chief executive during Galanos’ personal leave, with the termination seeing him installed in the position on an interim basis.
The ATC’s chief financial officer for 10 years, Galanos was appointed as the acting chief executive in April 2023. He then assumed the role on a permanent basis in August of that year, following an executive clean-out which claimed then CEO Jamie Barkley during the tenure of former chair Peter McGauran.
Galanos was told on Monday that his services were no longer required and a formal process to appoint a permanent replacement will be undertaken.
Following an ATC board strategy meeting on Tuesday, club directors have also taken additional portfolios to help shape the future of the club.
Deputy chair Caroline Searcy will lead a new membership committee aimed at enhancing member experience while director Annette English will coordinate the ATC and members’ response to the NSW government’s review of the Thoroughbred Racing Act. More committees could also be established in the future, a statement said.
Meanwhile, McGauran, a proponent for the sale of Rosehill to the state government, resigned from the board in late July, having been succeeded by his deputy Hale.
It was McMahon and McGauran who publicly campaigned for the failed sale of Rosehill to the NSW government. Galanos
But the idea to sell the cash-strapped club’s most valuable asset lurched from one crisis to another amid political infighting after a joint government and club announcement in December 2023.
A membership backlash and stinging criticism from leading trainers such as Gai Waterhouse and Rosehill-based Chris Waller put the ATC in an unwanted spotlight.
The unsolicited sale process was the subject of a NSW parliamentary inquiry, which included McGauran and McMahon as key witnesses alongside Waterhouse and Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys.
Galanos was largely unseen during the upheaval and he was not called to appear before the Upper House inquiry.
McMahon is a close friend and former work colleague of NSW Premier Chris Minns, and he was probed during the Rosehill hearing about his relationship with the Labor leader.
Throughout the inquiry, Minns maintained that ATC members would have the final say on Rosehill’s future as he looked for a solution to solve the state’s housing crisis.
A redevelopment of Rosehill was expected to deliver 25,000 new residential dwellings, with the ATC declaring that the proceeds would be invested in a new racetrack and long-overdue infrastructure improvements at its existing racecourses while restoring its depleted finances.
ATC members eventually voted down the sale proposal in a 56 per cent to 44 per cent count, paving the way for board and executive-level changes with Hale appointed as chair amid McGauran’s departure.
McGauran announced his decision to stand down on July 9 in an early exit from a government-appointed position that was due to continue until January 2026.
Searcy was voted in as the ATC’s deputy chair.
