ATC still fighting to stay out of administration after Racing NSW meeting

The Australian Turf Club’s hopes that Racing NSW’s show cause action will be resolved by Christmas have taken a backward step with no outcome from the latest meeting between the parties on Friday.

The Australian Turf Club has met with Racing NSW for a second time in three weeks to discuss the show cause notice issued by the regulator in September.

With the ATC attempting to avoid being put into administration, the four board members, chair Tim Hale, vice chair Caroline Searcy and directors Annette English and David McGrath, and CEO Steve McMahon held what was described as a ’constructive’ meeting with Racing NSW on November 27.

The Straight understands the parties met again on Friday morning, with no resolution on the show cause action issues by Racing NSW.

McMahon told the Straight Talk podcast last week that while he couldn’t comment on the specifics of the first meeting, he said there was very much an open dialogue.

“There was a free-flowing discussion between ourselves and Racing NSW and their board members,” he said. “I was pretty happy with that. It went pretty well in that regard.

“We submitted our show cause response. We’re confident that we’re sound financially and our governance is sound. So we’ve made those representations.

“They’ve come back asking for more information, which we will be providing. We’re hopeful that we can work through this before Christmas, ideally. But we’ll see how we go.”

The interim CEO, who stepped into that role when Matt Galanos departed in September in the same week two board members stepped down, said the club’s financial state was still solid.

“It we were an ASX listed company, would we be in receivership? The answer is no. We can pay our bills and we’ve got a strong asset base,” he said.

“Would our share price be low? Probably. So there’s certainly room for improvement there. I think for the ATC back with the old AJC days, even the STC days, if you really have a look at those books, all of those models were under pressure.”

“They were all struggling. Both sides had levels of debt and a lot of that goes missing from the history of all that. So it’s always been an issue.”

Dr Saranne Cooke, the Racing NSW chair, outlined the regulator’s concerns in an industry-wide bulletin issued in September in which she stated she held “significant doubts about its ability to survive”.   

She said action was being taken to protect the interests of the entire NSW industry.

“Racing NSW will work through this process with the ATC, in the best interest of all our 50,000 participants to ensure their jobs and livelihoods,” she said.