ATC posts $2.6 million deficit, as next Racing NSW meeting is confirmed

Australian Turf Club directors will meet with Racing NSW next week as the organisation continues its fight to ward off administration brought on by the state’s thoroughbred regulator.

Racing NSW board members and executives will join ATC chair Tim Hale, deputy Caroline Searcy and directors David McGrath and Annette English next Thursday to discuss matters raised in a show-cause notice issued to the club in September.

The meeting will come hot on the heels of the ATC confirming a $2.59 million deficit after releasing its annual report.

That report revealed that while the ATC’s revenue jumped to a historic high of $373.9 million, expenses had also risen to $376.5 million.

The deficit is an increase from the previous year’s mark of $2.4 million.    

“It is important to note the solid and secure financial result of the ATC in 2024/25,” Hale said in the report. 

“The ATC remains asset rich and full of opportunities to further futureproof our long-term plans.”

“Central to this will be to look at the potential of land holdings around the Camellia Precinct (Rosehill) and Canterbury Park.”

The ATC, which runs racing at Randwick, Rosehill, Warwick Farm and Canterbury racecourses, had been asked by Racing NSW in September to respond to questions as to why it shouldn’t be put into administration. 

The club filed a detailed submission on October 24 addressing the solvency and governance concerns held by Racing NSW.

The show-cause notice was handed to Hale and Searcy on September 19, a day after fellow ATC directors Ben Bayot and Natalie Hewson resigned from the board, and in the same week the club had sacked its chief executive Matt Galanos.

The dramatic developments occurred nearly four months after ATC members rejected a proposal to sell Rosehill for $5 billion to the state government, a move that then-club chair Peter McGauran claimed would provide long-term certainty for racing in Sydney.

The bitter battle for control of the ATC – and the angst directed towards McGauran – saw the former federal politician resign as chair in July, with Hale elected as his successor.

The unrest, exacerbated by the show-cause notice which threatens the ATC’s independence, saw Racing NSW take the unusual step of setting out its concerns publicly in an industry bulletin signed by its chair Dr Saranne Cooke.

Dr Cooke claimed the ATC did not have enough money to meet its future financial responsibilities.

“A frequent claim is that ATC should simply receive all wagering revenue generated by betting from all wagering operators on all its races. Based on this claim, the ATC would receive $80.1 million,” Dr Cooke wrote in the September 22 document.

“The actual money it receives from Racing NSW from wagering highlights why this argument is absurd given that in 2025, the ATC actually received $233.1 million in total funding from wagering revenues (TAB distribution and Racing NSW contributions).

“That’s $153 million more than ATC generated itself. It also received an additional $42 million per annum from agreements negotiated by Racing NSW with TAB, Sky Channel and Channel 7.”

The Straight reported last month that the ATC engaged insolvency agency KordaMentha and governance experts to assist in drafting its response to the show-cause notice, with the club dismissing many of the concerns raised by Dr Cooke.

Hale said in the annual report, it was time for the club to move beyond the Rosehill saga.

“The proposed Rosehill Gardens sale significantly distracted the Board’s attention,” he said.

“Members and industry participants held very strong and passionate views, but ultimately it was you who voted to keep our wonderful Rosehill Gardens Racecourse for the future of Sydney racing.

“This must now be placed in the past and we all must look forward in continuing to keep our Club and racing as leaders.”

The architect of the Rosehill plan, Steve McMahon, has now been appointed CEO after the departure of Galanos in August.

He said in the annual report that “underlying and unforeseen costs unrelated to the team’s efforts in delivering world-class racing” had led to the $2.6 million deficit.

“It is also clear that, in terms of wagering returns to the club, changes are needed to the current funding model heading toward the end of the decade,” McMahon said.  

An immediate resolution to the show cause issue is not expected to be achieved at next week’s meeting, which comes as Hale’s relationship with Independent MP Mark Latham is being scrutinised by Racing NSW. 

The Straight understands Latham has submitted an affidavit to the racing regulator in recent days, detailing allegations he made in NSW parliament last month, accusing Hale of breaching the ATC Code of Conduct.  

Hale and Latham had a long association, which appears to have soured after Latham was ejected from Randwick racecourse last month.

Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys, meanwhile, has been embroiled in controversy of his own.

It emerged last week that members of the NSW Trainers’ Association executive and board had “canned the bejesus out of” V’landys at the Hazzard Review into the NSW Thoroughbred Racing Act.

However, details of the meeting between former state government minister Brad Hazzard and NSWTA chair Richard Pegum, chief executive Richard Callander and NSW country trainer Brett Cavanough were soon leaked to a furious V’landys.

Meanwhile, the formation of Racing Reform Group NSW was confirmed on Thursday. Its aim is to ensure there is meaningful reform in the thoroughbred industry in NSW, and lobby for a broadening of the scope of the Hazzard Review.

The group’s steering committee is led by secretary and well-known breeding figure Brian Nutt, and also contains Julia Ritchie, Helen Sinclair, Arthur Mitchell, Will Johnson, David Walter and Jason Abrahams.