Former Olympic track star heads field to join Racing NSW board

2 months ago 5

Former Australian track and field golden girl Jane Flemming has emerged as a short-priced favourite to join the board of Racing NSW as its standoff with the Australian Turf Club.

The Peter V’landys-led racing regulator on Monday announced it was sacking the directors of the ATC, which operates Sydney’s racetracks, and replacing them with an administrator.

Jane Flemming is president of Australian Athletics.

But the board members have launched legal action to block their removal, to be heard in the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday.

The row dividing Sydney’s lucrative racing scene escalated on Tuesday, with ATC chairman Tim Hale lashing out at the controlling body – which hit back by releasing allegations about Hale’s links to independent MP Mark Latham.

The feud gathered pace with the Minns government close to unveiling two new directors of the high-profile Racing NSW, whose appointments require the approval of cabinet.

Labor stalwart David Tierney is expected to land one of the vacant seats, which come with a $75,000 per year payment, while two-time Olympian Flemming has appeared from the pack as a likely choice for the other spot.

Australian Turf Club chairman Tim Hale has hit out at Racing NSW’s moves to sack its board.

There have been questions about the process because of the presence of a member of the board of Venues NSW, which Tierney also sits on, on the selection panel but racing minister David Harris has maintained “all potential or perceived conflicts of interests were managed appropriately”.

A winner of two gold medals at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, Flemming is president of Australian Athletics and would become the second woman on the seven-member Racing NSW board if chosen.

She was pictured at Royal Randwick racecourse in October for The Everest, the showpiece race day of Sydney’s spring carnival, where she sat at Hale’s table.

Ironically, Flemming would be joining a board that has sought to toss out Hale, a Sydney barrister who opposed the ultimately failed bid to sell Rosehill Gardens racecourse for $5 billion.

Peter V’landys heads Racing NSW, the controlling body for the sport in the state.

Hale sent a blistering statement to club members on Tuesday, defending the financial health of the club and claiming its efforts to pursue commercial opportunities had been “thwarted as a direct result of restrictions imposed by Racing NSW” since it was issued with a show-cause notice three months ago and effectively placed in caretaker mode.

The ATC board has been reduced to only four members since directors Ben Bayot and Natalie Hewson resigned days after chief executive Matt Galanos was sacked in September and Hale said Racing NSW had not granted the club’s request to appoint an additional board member on an interim basis.

The ATC directors dispute that Racing NSW has the power to axe them and replace them with an administrator.

“The board is firmly committed to defending the independence of the Australian Turf Club,” Hale said. “The imposition of administration would strip members of their democratic rights and place control of the club in the hands of external parties.

“The board does not believe this outcome is justified, necessary, or in the long-term interests of Sydney racing or the broader NSW racing industry.”

In response to Hale’s statement, Racing NSW made public its notice to the ATC informing it an administrator was being brought in.

It said the club directors’ dismissal was “the culmination of months of escalating concern regarding the ATC’s financial viability [and] governance issues” and a breakdown in trust with Racing NSW.

“In addition, Racing NSW has formed the clear and considered view that the conduct of the ATC board gives rise to serious and systemic corporate governance concerns,” the regulator said.

The notification to the club cited communications between Hale and Latham about the proposed sale of Rosehill, which Racing NSW argued should have been disclosed to the ATC board.

A fierce detractor of V’landys who clashed with the Racing NSW chief during last year’s parliamentary inquiry into the Rosehill plan, Latham turned whistleblower against his former ally Hale after being escorted out of Royal Randwick on Epsom Day in October.

Hale has previously denied sharing any confidential board information with Latham.