Matt Ballesty might feel like he’s caught on a roulette wheel, but the former casino executive says he’s enjoying the challenge of being New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing’s new chief executive during a pivotal period for the country’s industry. He speaks to Tim Rowe after two months in the top job.
Matt Ballesty was on his way to a hui, a Maori phrase for an assembly or gathering, with the New Zealand thoroughbred industry’s various stakeholders, a meeting that could help shape the future of the sport.
The brainstorming session in Cambridge was the latest face-to-face meet and greet Ballesty has undertaken in his two months in the job as the chief executive of New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing.
It’s important that the former casino executive, himself a small racehorse owner, gets his head around the intricacies of the industry, and quickly.
There has been criticism levelled against Ballesty’s predecessors at NZTR about a lack of tangible action, particularly centring ont the rationalisation of New Zealand’s racetracks, and that the immediate financial boost from wagering giant Entain’s TAB NZ deal could be squandered.
It’s a situation Ballesty, in his interview with The Straight while driving on the motorway from Auckland to Cambridge, says he is all too aware of.
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