A key member group opposed to the sale of Rosehill racecourse is calling on the Australian Turf Club (ATC) to convene an extraordinary general meeting to consider a motion to remove chairman Peter McGauran.
Save Rosehill, made up of a powerful group of ATC members including former chair Matt McGrath and vice-chair Julia Ritchie, sent a petition for the board to consider last week.
That petition has the support of more than 5 per cent of members, which under the Corporations Act 2001 obliges the ATC directors to call a meeting within 21 days of the request being made, and to hold a meeting within two months.
The ATC board met on Tuesday this week, and according to a statement provided to The Straight, is assessing the legal status of the petition.
“The Australian Turf Club has received a request for an EGM in relation to the position of the Chairman,” it said.
“The club is working through the legal status of the material it has been sent and as such will not make any further comment.”
If the ATC is obliged to proceed with the meeting, it would have to take place before the planned special general meeting on April 3 where a vote on the future of Rosehill is expected to be held.
Save Rosehill has honed its focus on the chairmanship of McGauran, who has led the ATC board’s engagement with the NSW government over the potential sale of the western Sydney racecourse.
In a statement, it said that the evidence to emerge from a parliamentary Select Committee inquiry into the proposal had “destroyed member confidence” in the ATC chairman’s leadership.
It said the lack of a stated viable alternative to Rosehill should have sounded the death knell of the proposal and that the decision to enter a memorandum of understanding with the government over the proposal was “beyond comprehension”.
Bren O’Brien
“There is overwhelming evidence that the best interests of members and the wider racing industry can only be served by a change in leadership at the ATC and the board withdrawing from this highly flawed, controversial and biased process,” Ritchie said.
“The club must regain control of our own destiny and end this charade now.
“Members can have no faith that any proposal emerging from this MOU process, concerning either the potential revenue the club would receive or the viability of an alternative to Rosehill Gardens in metropolitan Sydney, will have any foundation in reality and that is why the process should be halted now.”
Save Rosehill stated last September that it was supporting a petition to call for McGauran’s removal.
Back then, Save Rosehill spokesman Jason Abrahams described McGauran’s position as untenable.
Warwick Barr
It has now ramped up its campaign after the Select Committee report and after the election of Save Rosehill member Annette English and re-election of vice chair Tim Hale, who is also against the sale, to the ATC board in November.
