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THREE WIDE NO COVER: An open letter to the new Racing Australia

Racing fans line up for the start of Race 9 at Derby Day Randwick. (Photo: Paul Barkley/LookPro)
Expert
20th April, 2015
4

Dear Mr John Messara and Peter McGauran, Congratulations on the formation of the new park body for thoroughbred racing in Australia – Racing Australia.

The combination of valuable assets such as the Australian Stud Book and RISA with the Australian Racing Board is an inspired move, and is one that will be applauded nationwide.

We know the stud book is very valuable. Under it, $18 million was paid to the ATC and VRC. RISA has revenues of approx $7.8M with profits last year of $2.5m.

This is pretty interesting considering both of these entities received revenues exclusively from industry participants, breeders, trainers and ultimately owners.

In simple terms, you could improve profitability by increasing costs to participants, or alternatively lower costs to participants by lowering profits. The expenses incurred in running the Australian Racing Board are unknown.

My point is that these three entities previously did not disclose or publish annual reports.

Therefore I ask on behalf of all racing participants of Australia that an annual report is published in a timely manner at the end of the year.

Other successful sporting bodies in Australia, such as the AFL, NRL, FFA, ARU and Cricket Australia, have major benefits. The national approach includes conformity of rules and regulations, aggregation of media and sponsorship rights, and representation on the international stage.

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I look forward to a strategy paper from Racing Australia addressing these issues. Best of luck, especially regarding media rights considering what we have just suffered through with the dismantling of TVN.

AFL has the Brownlow, Cricket Australia the Allan Border Medal, even the FFA has the Johnny Warren Medal – so let us know when and where the Racing Australia night of nights will be held and we can celebrate the Australian Horse of the Year, plus the jockey and trainer awards.

Maybe we can ask Racing NSW to hand over the Bart Cummings Medal to Racing Australia to ensure all big awards are handed out on one evening.

In the recently released annual report by the IFHA (International Federation Horse Racing Authorities), Australia led the world with 26 races in the list of the top 100 Group 1 races. We are the second-largest breeding crop in the world and bat above our weight regarding wagering.

Please update our profile with the Asian Racing Federation. It is years out of date, referring to 2005 as current.

Racing in Queensland following the Queensland Racing Commission of Inquiry was brought to its knees and retired several influentials figures. Australian racing was hurt internationally and is still recovering.

The marketing of the Australian-bred thoroughbred is still handled by a different entity called Aushorse, so maybe you can look to bring this under your umbrella as well.

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Racing is the third or fourth largest industry in Australia. This deserves recognition and representation at a Federal level of our government. I assume this will be a major priority and allocation of resources for Racing Australia to lobby in the corridors of power in Canberra.

So once again, best of luck and report back to us with your achievements.

Your sincerely,
Jason Cornell

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