V’landys hits pause on Racing NSW role as rugby league comes calling

Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys will take four months’ long-service leave and will assume the interim executive chairmanship role at the Australian Rugby League Commission as the National Rugby League searches for a new leader.

The changing of executive seats was prompted by news that NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo would be appointed as the new boss of Tennis Australia.

V’landys is the chairman of the Australian Rugby League Commission, a role he assumed during his 22-year reign as chief executive of Racing NSW.

Given the need to step into an executive role at the NRL, V’landys will take leave from Racing NSW from July 15, with chief operating officer Graeme Hinton promoted to interim chief executive of the racing regulator.

V’landys said a specially convened Racing NSW board meeting had approved the unusual arrangement.

“The board was unanimous in support of myself and the position that I put myself into. I think people underestimate how good the chairman of Racing NSW is, Saranne Cooke,” he told a press conference to announce Abdo’s departure.

“She’s a brilliant operator. It’s really sad how people underrate her because she’s one of the best chairmen I’ve seen. We’ve got a very good team in Graeme Hinton and that team that he will be acting interim CEO or acting CEO … I’m confident that it will be business as usual in racing.” 

Cooke confirmed V’landys’ temporary departure has been approved by the Racing NSW board.

“Mr V’landys has asked for four months’ long service leave to take an interim executive role at the Australian Rugby League Commission following the departure of CEO Mr Andrew Abdo,” she said.

“Mr V’landys has made this application so he is not spending more time on the Australian Rugby League Commission while performing his chief executive duties at Racing NSW.

“Having carefully considered Mr V’landys’ application, the Racing NSW board unanimously supported the professional approach that Mr V’landys has taken.”

V’landys would be slated to return on November 15, after the conclusion of The Everest carnival.

His dual roles with racing and rugby league – he began his ARLC chairmanship in 2019 – have prompted questions as to his focus but he has always maintained that he has the capacity to fulfil both duties.

The question is now whether V’landys will seek to occupy the executive chairmanship on a permanent basis. He said that was up to the NRL clubs if they wanted to change the constitution, but he wouldn’t seek to be appointed directly as chief executive.

V’landys is on a year-by-year contract at Racing NSW and said he would consider his future, as he always does, during his summer break.

“I’ve said it every year, I take the Christmas holidays to decide what I do the following year. And I’ve done that for the last six or seven years because it is a difficult position trying to run both sports.

“Every year I look at the effect it has on me and my children and my wife and family and I make a decision and I’ll do exactly the same again this year. So I’m not making any decisions until the end of the year.”

V’landys has overseen a massive transformation of the NSW racing industry, including a key legal victory that precipitated a race fields windfall of funding, supercharging prize money. He has also overseen a range of initiatives, including the formation of Australia’s richest race, The Everest.

However, there have been questions raised as to the way power and funding has been distributed and whether the racing regulator needs reform.

Racing NSW is involved in a Supreme Court case against the Australian Turf Club, while V’landys himself has brought defamation action against a small publisher over an article which, among other things, questioned his length of time in the top job.

A vocal aspect of the thoroughbred industry has been calling for change and that discussion, as well as the fallout from the Rosehill parliamentary inquiry, has prompted the Minns government to review the Thoroughbred Racing Act, under which the NSW racing industry is administered.  

That review is being conducted by former NSW health minister Brad Hazzard and examines whether the Racing Act remains fit for purpose. Its scope does not involve funding, or the accountability of Racing NSW to the government.

However, the review, which is due to be handed down in the coming months, will likely see a change into the way racing is governed in the state, which either V’landys, or a new chief executive will need to negotiate and implement, along with the Racing NSW board.  

Meanwhile, it looms as an enormously important period for the NRL, with negotiations underway on a multi-billion-dollar broadcasting deal and the introduction of two new teams, the Perth Bears and the Papua New Guinea Chiefs, in the next two years.

While Abdo has been the chief executive overseeing both the broadcast deal and the expansion, V’landys has played an extremely public role in their promotion.

The duo will work on trying to finalise the broadcast deal before Abdo’s departure on July 15.