Bloodstock agent Sheamus Mills has secured a seat on the Melbourne Racing Club committee, adding to a pro-Sandown ticket on a board divided over the racecourse’s future.
Mills was one of six candidates vying for two board positions caused by the retirement of chairman Matt Cain and the departure of committeeman Mark Pratt.
He will be joined on the 10-member board by Cameron Fisher, who also supported the continuation of racing at Sandown.
Mills and Fisher also campaigned in opposition to the MRC’s plan to replace the Rupert Clarke grandstand with a $250 million grand pavilion-style building.
A respected figure in bloodstock circles, Mills has been directly associated with a host of frontline racehorses including the 2020 Thousand Guineas winner Odeum.
In his candidate’s statement, Mills described himself as a “passionate” MRC member who is hoping to provide a conduit between people who work in the thoroughbred industry and members and the committees who represent them.
He said issues he would like to address included Caulfield’s unpopular mounting yard location, plans to demolish the Rupert Clark grandstand, Sandown’s survival and MRC’s growing debt.
The relocation of the Caulfield mounting yard provided a flashpoint for a bitter feud between factions on the MRC board that has been simmering amid a rezoning proposal for Sandown.
Outspoken board member John Kanga called for a spill of the board but the MRC denied his motion because it said it had received advice that it was “not legally valid”.
Kanga and fellow board members Alison Saville and Caitrin Kelly had been called to appear before a disciplinary hearing ahead of the annual general meeting on supposed breaches of the MRC’s code of conduct.
He said the move was made to stop a bid to replace Cain as MRC chairman.
Kanga threatened legal action before successfully having his application for the hearing to be deferred until October.
“Going forward, if the new board members vote with us and support me as chairman, we can then stop the delay of the special general meeting and move to remove the remaining board members that the MRC members want gone,” he said.
“If there are any shenanigans, I will have no hesitation in taking Supreme Court action and am confident we will again prevail.”
