Peter V’landys left fuming after confidential details leak from industry review

3 months ago 10

Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys has had a spectacular fallout with the state’s trainers over criticisms of the sport’s governing body.

NSW Trainers Association representatives Richard Pegum, Richard Callander and Brett Cavanough met with former NSW health minister Brad Hazzard on Wednesday as part of his review of the $3.3 billion industry.

Hazzard was appointed by the Minns government to review the widespread powers of Racing NSW and has been meeting industry figures far and wide.

At Wednesday’s meeting in Sydney, the trio were at times critical of the way the sport is governed, said sources with knowledge of the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were confidential.

Aspects of the meeting were conveyed to Racing NSW, and V’landys was left fuming.

Pegum is a close associate of V’landys, who appointed him to the board of the newly established PNG Chiefs National Rugby League expansion team. He’s owned several group 1 winners and was a part owner in Brew when it won the Melbourne Cup in 2000.

Former NSW health minister Brad Hazzard was appointed by the Minns government to review the powers of Racing NSW.

The morning after the meeting, Pegum invited V’landys to a barbecue and received short shrift, with V’landys declining the invitation.

According to sources, the tone of V’landys’ message was extremely abrupt, and the matter has left Pegum upset over the soured friendship.

V’landys told this masthead via text message that subsequent to Wednesday’s meeting the “only communication I made to Richard Pegum was in response to an invitation to a BBQ at his place”.

Pegum, who is chairman of the trainers association, declined to comment.

But sources have said that other members of the association who weren’t at the meeting have raised the prospect of a vote of no-confidence in V’landys as a result of the fallout.

There are differing versions of how Racing NSW learnt of the trainers’ criticisms to Hazzard.

The former minister declared he did not share any information about the meeting.

“I am conducting an independent review of the thoroughbred racing legislation and will be reporting to the NSW government next year,” Hazzard said.

“An essential part of what I am doing involves complete trust for people to speak to me. I would never break that trust. I stress, I am independent.”

Cavanough declined to comment. Callander could not be reached on Friday.

According to sources, the conversation between the trainers’ representatives and Hazzard was robust but did not include any personal attack of V’landys, who has led Racing NSW for two decades.

In addition to chairing the trainers association, Pegum is executive chairman of ASX-listed Pacific Lime and Cement, which supplies building materials for Papua New Guinea.

He was installed on the inaugural board of the Australian government-backed PNG NRL team because of his business experience in the country.

The Albanese government has committed $600 million over 10 years for its signature sports diplomacy project as it attempts to thwart China’s security ambitions in the Pacific.

Hazzard managed the health portfolio during the pandemic, but the politics of racing are an altogether different beast.

The parliamentary inquiry into the proposed $5 billion sale of Rosehill Gardens racecourse for housing last year became a setting for critics of Racing NSW to air their concerns, both in public hearings and in confidential submissions and behind-closed-doors testimony.

The plan divided the industry, with opposition to it led by iconic trainer Gai Waterhouse and controversial upper house MP Mark Latham, and was ultimately voted down by members of the track’s owner, the Australian Turf Club, in May.

Hazzard, who announced his retirement from politics in 2022 after 32 years in parliament, has been appointed to conduct a review of the Thoroughbred Racing Act, which established the powers of Racing NSW in 1996.

The review was set up to “assess whether the terms of the act remain appropriate to ensure the integrity and proper regulation of thoroughbred racing in NSW and to support the industry’s development and sustainability”.

Its scope includes appointment requirements and tenure limits for Racing NSW directors, the transparency of information about Racing NSW’s commercial operations and its disclosures about strategic planning, animal welfare and integrity.

Its terms of reference did not include Racing NSW’s independence from government and racing’s much-discussed funding and distribution model.