A “constructive” meeting between the Racing New South Wales board and a group of high-profile breeders was held on Tuesday in a possible thawing of relations between the regulator and one of the state’s major thoroughbred participant groups.
There has been growing tension between Australia’s peak breeding bodies and Racing NSW, led for the past 20 years by its chief executive Peter V’landys, and the all-encompassing Upper House Parliamentary Inquiry into the proposed sale of Rosehill has added to the apparent industry divide.
Widden’s Antony Thompson, the chairman of Aushorse and whose Hunter Valley stud stands one of the country’s most commercial sires in Zoustar, confirmed that Tuesday’s meeting at Racing NSW’s Druitt St headquarters in Sydney had taken place but he would not elaborate further.
“There was a meeting between some of the prominent breeders of NSW and the board of RNSW yesterday,” he told The Straight on Wednesday.
“From the breeders’ point of view, it was seen as a constructive meeting.”
Thompson was among the cohort of breeders to attend the Racing NSW-initiated meeting, which The Straight believes also included Kingstar Farm owner and Newgate Farm shareholder Matthew Sandblom, Newgate's Henry Field, Coolmore Australia principal Tom Magnier and the stud’s local chairman Lindsay Maxsted as well as Godolphin Australia’s newly appointed managing director Andy Makiv.
Former Racing NSW and Racing Australia chairman John Messara, the founder of Arrowfield Stud, is also believed to have attended the meeting.
Simmering tensions between the breeders and V’landys boiled over ahead of the Racing NSW chief executive’s appearance before the Select Committee hearing into the sale of Rosehill on August 9, the inquiry’s second of the three open inquiry sessions conducted so far.
In comments made in the Sydney Morning Herald on August 7 in retaliation to remarks from Upper House MP Mark Latham, an ardent critic of the Racing NSW CEO, V’landys said Latham was running and an agenda for “some very wealthy breeders who don’t wish to be held to account for animal welfare.”
The quotes prompted a letter from Thoroughbred Breeders NSW to Racing NSW and its chief executive threatening defamation action on the eve of V’landys’ appearance before the Committee.
Appearing at the inquiry V’landys, with the protection of parliamentary privilege, said his detractors were using the inquiry into Rosehill to launch a “smear campaign”, before adding: “They want to get rid of me, so they can put horses into abattoirs.
“Because it's no longer a commercial proposition to these people, no matter how old the horse is, they want to send it to a knackery. Well, we won't allow that.”
Bren O’Brien
It had also been alleged during the inquiry that V’landys had used his position of authority to axe an element of the state’s Breeder Owner Bonus Scheme (BOBS) that benefited breeders of the horses rather than the owners who raced them. V’landys vehemently denied this at his Committee appearance.
The Straight understands V’landys’ inflammatory comments targeting “wealthy breeders” prior to and during his appearance at the inquiry was one of the issues discussed at the meeting between the influential members of the breeding sector and the eight-person Racing NSW board, which is chaired by Dr Saranne Cooke.
Horse welfare, the function of the Stud Book, the role of the Pattern and the importance of a national approach to the industry through the auspices of Racing Australia are also understood to have been on the agenda to be discussed during the meeting.
Sandblom’s appearance at the meeting most likely would have also seen Racing NSW’s 2024 draft strategic plan come up for discussion.
The owner of one of Australia’s biggest bloodstock portfolios, Sandblom strongly criticised much of the plan, which was released in late August by the regulator, claiming that the document was a “cut and paste” of its annual report that would have been better written if it was compiled by ChatGPT.
V’landys was contacted by The Straight on Wednesday but he declined to comment on the details of the meeting.
