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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-AU link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><h1>The ultimate turf war<o:p></o:p></h1><p class=standfirst-content>Racing NSW has made its boldest bid yet for the spring spotlight.<o:p></o:p></p><p>By <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/John+Stensholt">John Stensholt</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>They are the four most crucial weeks in horseracing, a period now threatening to spark the biggest turf war between the two biggest and most powerful forces in the industry.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>In one corner is traditionalist Victoria, the home of the Melbourne Cup and its associated carnival that includes the hugely popular Victoria Derby Day and historical lead-in races such as the Caulfield Cup and Cox Plate.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>Throwing a $45 million shot across its bow is Racing NSW and its innovative and aggressive chief executive, Peter V’landys, who in a decade at the helm has probably brought in close to $1 billion to the racing industry and his state and beyond via a series of strategic victories. He beat the corporate bookmakers in the High Court and helped more than $500 million flow in race field fees since 2012, and won $70m annually from the NSW government in the form of tax relief over five years to bring it in line with Victoria.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>He also oversaw the $150m Randwick racecourse grandstand rebuild and launched the $14m Everest, now the richest turf race in the world and the centrepiece of his latest plans.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=crosshead12><b>V’landys’s big bet</b><o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>V’Landys made arguably his biggest move yet on Monday, announcing a series of lucrative events that will take place on the same days as the biggest races on the Victorian spring carnival calendar, which for more than a century have dominated attention in the sport, carried the biggest amounts of prizemoney and attracted the largest crowds at the course and on television.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>NSW now unashamedly wants a piece of that action.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>At stake is the attention and wallets of fans and punters in the crucial period leading up the Melbourne Cup, on the first Tuesday of November. Those four weeks are the only relatively clear air racing gets — with wider sports fans and the general public following the AFL and NRL grand finals at the end of September and early October, and before the action heats up in the cricket season in summer — and are usually dominated by Victorian racing.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>Once-a-year punters spend their money backing horses in the Melbourne Cup and the Spring Racing Carnival is the biggest period of the financial year for bookmakers. General interest in the sport is heightened every Saturday with feature races across all of Melbourne’s big tracks and provincial courses.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>V’Landys, described to <i>The Australian </i>by one billionaire horse breeder yesterday as “the best racing administrator in the country by the length of the straight”, makes no secret of wanting to steal a piece of the extremely rich pie — which has upset his Victorian counterparts.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>“Like it or not, (the spring carnival) has been a monopoly, and in the corporate world monopolies don’t exist any more. It is no secret we don’t exist during that time at the moment. Our punters go to bet on Victorian racing, and it takes a long time for them to come back,” V’Landys tells <i>The Australian</i>.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>“We have to have a have a presence during that time. That is the best period to race. What we are doing is in the best interests of racing in NSW, which is actually our responsibility. This is not just about Victoria against NSW. But what they have to do is get over their sense of entitlement.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=crosshead12><b>Tough negotiator </b><o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>V’Landys has a history of rubbing plenty of people the wrong way — particularly south of the border — though his supporters say that while he is aggressive and one of the toughest negotiators around, he acts in the best interests of his constituents and is a master networker.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>He has become one of the most powerful sporting figures in the country and has a considerable group of friends and supporters in business and the media, led by radio broadcaster Alan Jones and other racing identities.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>But has V’Landys finally gone too far in first sparking and now trying to win a turf war between NSW and Victoria?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>Could his latest move to run $45m worth of races across the biggest time of the year in Victorian racing, the Spring Racing Carnival, upset the delicate balancing act between the races in Sydney and those in Melbourne, and ultimately confuse prospective fans, upset punters and undermine the pattern racing system for Australian horses?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>And does he risk — in shifting The Everest to Caulfield Cup day in October and introducing the $7.5m Golden Eagle on Derby Day, considered the best racing day of the year and the start of the Melbourne Cup carnival at Flemington — splitting the industry if the best horses, jockeys and trainers are forced to perennially choose between the industry’s two biggest cities at the most lucrative time of the year.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>Racing Victoria chairman Brian Kruger, the former chief executive of transport and logistics firm Toll Holdings, certainly thinks so, while Moonee Valley Race Club chief executive Michael Browell has said NSW “wants to sit right on top” of Victoria at spring carnival time, threatening iconic races such as his Cox Plate.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>Kruger has signalled his state will retaliate, telling radio station RSN yesterday: “There will be lots of emotions out there but we need to make sure (there) are ways we can respond. And that is something we will look at in the future.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>“We have not been sitting on our hands … we’ve been lifting our prizemoney around some of our iconic races.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>“We will keep looking at opportunities. It is still fresh for us to look at the range of announcements made … and say, ‘Here is what we are going to do about it’.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>“But we will look at whether there are things we can do with our prizemoney or our programming to respond.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>One option could be for Victoria to strike back and use its financial muscle to either boost prizemoney for existing races during the autumn months, the traditional time for NSW racing to shine with its championships and feature events like the Golden Slipper, or come up with new events like the $5m All Star Mile it ran for the first time in March.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>Both strategies could be rolled out with the idea of stealing punters away from NSW, as well some of the best horses. V’Landys is not frightened at that prospect. “I congratulated them when they came up with the All Star Mile. It is innovative. Good on them. I could hardly sit back and complain, could I? It would have been a bit hypocritical.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>Kruger says his big concern about NSW “encroaching” on the spring carnival is that some of the best jockeys, horses and trainers will effectively have to choose between being in Sydney or Melbourne, whereas previously most of the industry would head to Melbourne for the biggest days.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>“It is one of the things I look forward to in the spring. Most of our fans look forward to it. There’s no doubt there will be some impact on the issue of the best racing against the best, and that is a concern for not just Victorian racing but Australian racing.” Kruger says.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>One who has already made the choice is Bob Peters, owner of West Australian four-year-old Arcadia Queen. He has said the horse, considered one of the Cox Plate favourites, would instead target The Everest and Golden Eagle in Sydney.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=crosshead12><b>Jockeying for status</b><o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>V’Landys does want Group 1 status for his biggest events, though, and has criticised Victoria for blocking his plans via the Australian Pattern Committee, which allocates race status. If the best horses start chasing dollars in lesser-graded races in NSW, there is a fear it could hit the Group 1 status or otherwise of some Victorian events.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>V’Landys says the fears are “overblown” and “there are plenty of good horses out there and this will create more opportunities for some others to come through”.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>Kruger also questioned where NSW was getting the funding for the new races, reserving particular criticism for the $7.5m earmarked for the Golden Eagle, for four-year-olds.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>V’Landys, who came up with an innovative way to fund The Everest’s record prizemoney by charging competitors $600,000 per race “slot”, says he will find another way for the Golden Eagle. “We’ve come up with an innovative bet type that we will roll out, which will fund it. Most of what we are doing is self-funded.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>He would not be drawn as to what the new bet type or lottery would be, and rejected accusations punters would have to pay a bigger margin to bookmakers, who will pay higher race field fees to take bets on the new races, and be turned off at the prospect.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>“The Everest has become very popular with punters (it is now the second-most popular race on the NSW TAB, with more than $20m turnover) and when it was against the Caulfield Guineas last year, attendance and wagering at Caulfield went up,” he says.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>The Everest will move a week later, taking place on the same day as the $5m Caulfield Cup this year. But V’Landys says that will be as far as he goes, and claims he has no plans, for example, to launch a similar race of 2400m — The Everest is 1200m — or directly copy other big Victorian events.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>He just wants good sprinting races on the days Victorian racing is focused mostly on longer races, while also vying for attention in the wider market.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>“Look, this is about competition”, he says. “And there is nothing wrong with competition. If you look at just about all industries out there, revenue rises for everyone where there is competition. I think it will be the same for racing.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable><span class=keyline>-</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable><span class=h3>Destined for a league of his own</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/195fdb1f97beffcc729e0a654b9777f6"><span style='color:blue;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=650 height=365 style='width:6.7708in;height:3.802in' id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D51B78.EE71AB70" alt="Racing NSW chief executive Peter V'landys at Randwick in May. Picture: Getty Images"></span></a>Racing NSW chief executive Peter V'landys at Randwick in May. Picture: Getty Images<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter Beattie is said to have made it known privately he would like to see Peter V’landys, the Racing NSW chief executive, take over his job when his term finishes.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>It would be quite a rise for V’Landys, who has spent 15 years at the helm of Racing NSW and before that ran the state’s harness racing body, but one that would not surprise observers, including Beattie.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>“He is one of the straightest shooters I have come across in my career, but he is also one of the smartest,” Beattie tells <i>The Australian</i>.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>“He is very strategic and thinks four or five moves ahead, which is something that not many people are capable of.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>“He would be a good chairman in any organisation, be it rugby league or racing, or anything else. He is very capable.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>V’Landys has been an ARL commissioner since March last year and Beattie’s chairmanship finishes next February. While he has not ruled out continuing for another year, he is unlikely to be in the role for much longer.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>V’Landys says he will “certainly consider the opportunity” should the ARLC role come up, but he stresses his current role has him “part of a team and I am 100 per cent behind Peter as chairman and I think he has done a great job”.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>But he certainly would be the short-priced favourite.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>Prominent director Tony Shepherd, a Racing NSW board member, says: “Peter would be one of the best CEOs I have ever dealt with. He is very good on details and supports the big city races and what is happening in the regions. And he is very good on keeping costs under control.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>V’Landys’s parsimony is legendary. One anecdote has him knocking backing a couple of Racing NSW staff for a taxi voucher for a trip from the organisation’s Druitt Street headquarters in the Sydney CBD to Royal Randwick racecourse. V’Landys is said to have told them they could take the bus instead.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>While he has been in his role since 2004, V’Landys says he intends to stick around at Racing NSW and that it will be his last chief executive role — even if he does not subscribe to the theory bosses should leave after about five years.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>“You get better as time goes on. My best years have been the last few, I reckon. And just when you think you’ve done everything you want, something else pops up and you do that too.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>That means V’Landys could be around for a while yet to stay a thorn in the side of his counterparts in Victoria, where his surname is one usually used in disparaging terms or at best grudging admiration.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable>“Well, it’s better than not being talked about. When they’re talking about you, it means you’re still alive. Which is a good thing.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=selectionshareable><i>John Stensholt</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>