A decade ago, David Moodie failed in his ambition to rationalise Victoria’s metropolitan race clubs. The former Racing Victoria chairman tells Matt Stewart the current challenges faced by the Victoria Racing Club, the Melbourne Racing Club and the Moonee Valley Racing Club have not changed his view.
David Moodie says Labor’s local member for Essendon Danny Pearson “had to be picked up off the floor” when the then-Racing Victoria (RV) chairman delivered his alternative plan for Moonee Valley.
It was 2016. The Moonee Valley Racing Club (MVRC) had revealed radical future-proofing plans; raze and realign the track, surround it with residential towers and silence whispers of a merger with the Victoria Racing Club (VRC).
There were rumblings across town that the Melbourne Racing Club (MRC) might sell Sandown. Caulfield would get lights, Flemington might. The Valley already had them. To Moodie, this was “lunacy”.
Melbourne’s three metropolitan clubs were running their own race. All three planned to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on new grandstands as legacy projects in an era of ever-declining racetrack attendances.
Moodie did not understand the need for three metropolitan clubs with overlapping costs and often conflicting ambitions.
Sydney had already whittled its city clubs from two to one. In 2011, the Australian Jockey Club (AJC) and Sydney Turf Club (STC) became the Australian Turf Club (ATC). Historically, the AJC had been Sydney’s version of the VRC but in 1998 the AJC ceded control of NSW racing to newly formed Racing NSW. The VRC officially forfeited its regulator role to the new entity Racing Victoria in 2001.
Moodie and chief executive Bernard Saundry met Pearson as talk escalated about Moonee Valley becoming Happy Valley. The RV chairman arrived at a meeting with Pearson wielding a wrecking ball of his own.
“We sat down, I told Danny Pearson we don’t support this redevelopment, and that Moonee Valley should go (as a club) and we had to pick him up off the floor,” said Moodie, who has become a virtually invisible figure in racing administration since his sensational resignation as RV chair in December 2016.
Moodie’s departure skittled his reined-in vision for Victorian racing. It’s a vision shared by Andrew Jones, the RV chief executive who also failed to complete the course, resigning in April 2024. He also did not see the point of three metropolitan clubs.
Aaron Morrison, Jones’ successor, says mergers could only be achieved if the clubs were willing and none offered a view on it when approached by The Straight.
Morrison points out that “mergers are just one of several potential pathways” for savings and symmetry in Melbourne racing.
In a November 28 op-ed in The Age, Jones said that the financial woes of the VRC suggested there was “a better model” for racing in Victoria, “which is simply for the three Melbourne racing clubs to merge”.
“No longer would there be three separate master plans worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Operating expenditure would be reduced, and capital expenditure optimised across a network of tracks,” he wrote.
“Why hasn’t it happened? It boils down to identity, money and politics. The real barrier to club consolidation is club leaders. Committees don’t like to vote themselves out of office, and prefer to focus on projects at their own club rather than looking at the bigger picture. The fastest horse in racing has always been self-interest.”
Bren O’Brien
Asked about the VRC’s balance sheet, the MRC’s chaotic recent history and the MVRC’s now unstoppable redevelopment project, Moodie said: “I told you so.”
Asked if the VRC could survive its financial crisis – which includes a $10 million debt to RV - without a merger, Moodie said: “I’m not sure it can.”
He said ego was a major stumbling block to mergers.
“It took over. All the boards at these clubs ever wanted was a seat at the lunch table. They fall into the wrong hands for the wrong reasons. As for the greater good, nobody really cared,” Moodie said.
“What we have seen is that money has simply been murdered.”
Moodie first wanted the VRC and MVRC to merge; not necessarily the selling off of Moonee Valley but it was an option.
“Merging Flemington and Moonee Valley was a starting point, leaving one club north or the river, one south. That was the bare minimum. Discontinuing racing at Moonee Valley was not ruled in or out. It was all about rationalisation,” he said.
“You had 100 acres of freehold land at Moonee Ponds and just down the road the premier track. A merger made perfect sense, a move in the right direction. Talk got very serious but at the end of the day ego got in the way.”
MVRC chief executive Michael Browell did not wish to buy into the merger debate but said: “We will be in an unbelievably strong (financial) position in the next 10 years because of the redevelopment.”
The MVRC estimates Moonee Valley Park will generate $2 billion in revenue. Phases 1 and 2 are completed within the next 18 months. The club will invest $220 million of profits from residentials into the new track and amenities.
Matt Stewart
Moodie remains unconvinced, steadfast in his view of a decade ago.
“Who is benefitting from the Moonee Valley redevelopment? I don’t see any proposal for money flowing to participants. Is spinning the track around a material improvement?”
Of the new grandstand: “Complete lunacy. Will just end up like the big ship at Flemington, a complete white elephant.”
The haphazard recent history of at least two of the three city clubs would perhaps be vindication for Moodie and Jones and food for thought for Morrison.
The MRC had become a trainwreck. A board coup d’etat on the eve of the Caulfield Cup carnival led to the reining in of $165 million of club debt borne out of a commitment to a $300 million redevelopment plan that has mostly been shelved.
Popular Sandown racecourse, once regarded by the club as too valuable to keep, has been saved and the MRC is now exploring alternative revenue streams. Brakes have been applied to the razing of heritage at Caulfield.
The VRC has reported a fifth straight year of operational losses. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic it has lost $87 million, including $24.2 million in the last financial year. The $128 million members Club Stand, which opened in 2018, is perceived as a shackle around the club’s ankle.
There was widespread anger aimed at the VRC when it reduced its headcount by 40 despite perceptions of lavish spending, including on “talent” imported for Melbourne Cup week.
In a statement, chairman Neil Wilson preferred not to look back, or at the present crisis, but said the VRC was “well-positioned to continue our legacy of racing excellence and providing outstanding experiences for all who engage with the VRC and visit Flemington”.
Three board members recently survived challenges and retained their positions.
Sydney’s one-club model has now existed for 14 years and has been controversial. The ATC posted a $2.4 million operating loss for 2023/24 and it and Racing NSW have been embroiled in an often-fiery parliamentary inquiry into the proposed sale of Rosehill.
"All the boards at these clubs ever wanted was a seat at the lunch table. They fall into the wrong hands for the wrong reasons. As for the greater good, nobody really cared” - former Racing Victoria chairman David Moodie
Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys was asked at the inquiry about his criticism of the ATC board.
"If we were going to take the money (from sale of Rosehill), why wouldn’t we want somebody on that board that had the relevant skill?” he said. “We didn't want to see the money spent on members' indulgences like ski chalets and resorts in Fiji and resorts in Paris.”
Veteran Sydney racing scribe Max Presnell says Sydney’s single model has failed. He said Randwick was in disrepair and Rosehill was not far behind.
“Pat Parker (former STC chief executive) said one club would never work and in retrospect, he was right,” Presnell said.
“You need two clubs for healthy competition, for a sense of club pride. What we have now is a deplorable situation. Randwick is downtrodden, Rosehill functional at best.
“In the good old days people who ran these clubs were racing people, not people who want to sell off Rosehill for whatever they claim it's worth.”
Presnell said marketing for the Golden Slipper festival had slumped since the demise of the STC.
Morrison doesn't appear to have the same one-club passion as Jones and Moodie but is attracted to elements of it.
Aushorse Investor’s Guide 2025
- More Races worth $1 million+ than Europe & America combined
- More than 140,000 Australians involved in racehorse ownership
“If two or more clubs came to us and said that they’re keen to pursue a merger, then we would work with them to achieve the best outcome for the racing industry and for their members. Mergers are ultimately a decision for individual clubs to make rather than RV given their governance structures,” he said.
“A myriad of different issues need to be considered in respect of strategic alignment, benefits to members and partners, governance and leadership, operational alignment, as well as commercial and financial outcomes.”
Morrison said he expected that clubs were “reviewing their bottom line and ensuring that they’re structured and organised effectively to operate as efficiently as possible, as we are at RV across our businesses”.
The VRC’s recent troubles have certainly highlighted the challenges that clubs face. One club chief executive described Australia’s biggest racing club as a “basket case” while there is a widespread concern that the VRC may not survive as a single entity in the long term.
“The VRC … who’d have thought,” Moodie said.
Matt Stewart
