If ever you required any proof why horse racing in NSW is struggling you only had to watch the CEO Peter V’Landys, who was the special guest on the TVN’s Racing Review program on Sunday morning.
Normally he would never expose himself on TVN and the highly intelligent and untouchable Racing Review compare Bruce Clarke who made the point several times that V’Landys argument “just does not stand up”.
The Federal Court ruling is expected this week where Racing NSW wants to charge corporate bookies and exchanges 1.5% tax for the privilege to promote and bet on their product. The bookies are saying that this tax is not viable and have agreed to pay Racing Victoria 10% on turnover (15% in the spring carnival).
V’Landys incredibly refused to take the stand over the last two weeks in court and in fact has not even bothered turning up despite the pending landmark ruling.
His TVN appearance looked like a last ditch effort to salvage something from the wreck, but Bruce Clarke kept reinforcing the point that the most important consumers in NSW Racing are the punters who fund the industry, despite V’Landys claims that his “only concern are the participants: owner, trainers, jockeys, stable hands, etc.”
The boss of Racing NSW made a multitude of inaccurate comments that were irresponsible for someone is such a powerful and accountable position, and once when challenged by Clarke he commented “absolute rubbish Bruce”.
I personally trade on U.K. Racing every morning after midnight and I can affirm that the racing is vibrant with enormous interest and turnover. There are currently six Internet radio stations that cover the four to five meetings every day and you can feel the excitement.
V’Landys disgraceful comment that “U.K. racing would not have an industry if they didn’t have Sheik Mohammad” was typical of a man out of touch and struggling with the reality that his patch is drowning from his signature administration.
It was refreshing to see a member of the media not gun shy by V’Landys standover commentary and set him and the viewers’ straight on some key points.
For a prosperous future of racing in NSW let us hope that Mr. Clarke is not the only person to fall for his bluff and bravado this week.
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