No confidence in the RVL
December 1st 2009 04:08
In The Age today I read a great piece of journalism from Patrick Bartley. As well as discussing the ongoing debate about the seemingly imminent demise of jumps racing in Victoria, he also presents some investigative journalism to identify that this whole industry has been destroyed by a small group of 16 zealots - and the disgusting weakness of RVL (Racing Victoria Limited) who capitulated with astonishing speed and a whimper.
(photo: Neil Murray)
I witnessed on a few occasions this band of ghoulish protesters in attendance at provincial racemeetings featuring jumping races. Just a handful - just a vocal few. More interested in their own egos and illogical crusade than they are with the welfare of the horse. Any yet the RVL jumped at their shadow. Boo! (if not the horses, then see the RVL jump).
Perhaps on the same day that we find an unexpected change in the leadership of the Liberal Party we may also be on the cusp of a dramatic ‘no-confidence’ vote in the RVL by stakeholders in horse racing in Victoria. We can only hope so.
Please read (below) this article by Patrick Bartley, published in The Age on December 1st, 2009.
Industry may unseat RVL board
PATRICK BARTLEY
December 1, 2009
COMMENT
IN THE next 48 hours, racing stakeholders face their most defining moment since the Racing Victoria Limited model was launched almost a decade ago.
It is possible that the discontent within the industry could result in a motion to spill the board of RVL at Thursday's annual general meeting.
There are 10 bodies involved in racing - the three Melbourne racing clubs, the owners, trainers, jockeys, breeders, country racing, jumps racing and the unions. If eight of those groups decide their relationship with the RVL board is untenable, they will push for the spill.
Last Friday the outpouring of disbelief could be heard from jockeys to owners, breeders to unions across the nation following RVL's decision to end jumps racing.
All these groups came to the realisation that they had stood back for far too long and let RVL dictate policy that was at odds as to how their sport should be run. However, jumps racing was just the catalyst for a wider-reaching feeling of discontent.
Whether you like jumps racing or not, RVL has created a sore on the back of this industry that has been festering for some time.
There have been several recent examples of poor management: the handling of the jumps racing debate, the backtracking over the regulations of whip use, the controversy over padded whips and the bungling of hearings such as the one that saw Damien Oliver banned for a month over an illegal substance and then the result overturned on appeal.
Starting next week, another anti-racing group will launch their ''ban two-year-old racing in Australia''. Yep, poster-size prints of 90-kilogram men on 14-hand horses are already in circulation.
Five years ago if you said that limited use of padded whips would be racing policy, jumps racing banned, and that the Warrnambool three-day carnival in May would stage all flat races by the year 2011, you would be accused of lunacy.
Jumps racing in this state has been in place for 150 years but what the public has not been told is that the campaign against jumps racing was basically stage-managed by a group of 16 protesters and partially financed by an American citizen.
In fact, the American, who has never been on an Australian racecourse, has now been credited with the dismantling of the jumping game using only four lieutenants in his bid for success.
Three men and a year-11 schoolgirl from the southern suburbs managed to infiltrate the mindset of RVL with a concerted campaign last winter.
Using a photographer and a statistician they went to every racecourse that held a jumping event in the past 10 months. After recording each injury, however minor, the photographer snapped the smallest blemish from a sprung plate to a broken neck. This information was then sent to media outlets. Yesterday, RVL chief executive Rob Hines said that he and his board were concerned at the image of horses dying in jumping races.
He didn't mention the image of racing during the spring carnival, with anxious parents waiting outside the St Kilda Road police lock-up, hoping their school-aged children who'd been drinking and fighting were given bail.
No, RVL wouldn't dare bite the hand that feeds it - preferring to bully a minor section of the industry.
It's understood that two racing club chairmen may hold the balance of power to any spill of the RVL board.
In the past, stakeholders have preferred to whisper their misgivings behind closed doors, far from the boot of the Minister for Racing, Rob Hulls.
This time, however, the racing world will be watching intently at who goes weak at the knees and, from the feeling out there, no committee lunch will be big enough to hide behind for the stakeholder who buckles first. - Patrick Bartley, The Age.
Steeplechase at Perth in Scotland
(photo: Neil Murray)
I witnessed on a few occasions this band of ghoulish protesters in attendance at provincial racemeetings featuring jumping races. Just a handful - just a vocal few. More interested in their own egos and illogical crusade than they are with the welfare of the horse. Any yet the RVL jumped at their shadow. Boo! (if not the horses, then see the RVL jump).
Perhaps on the same day that we find an unexpected change in the leadership of the Liberal Party we may also be on the cusp of a dramatic ‘no-confidence’ vote in the RVL by stakeholders in horse racing in Victoria. We can only hope so.
Please read (below) this article by Patrick Bartley, published in The Age on December 1st, 2009.
Industry may unseat RVL board
PATRICK BARTLEY
December 1, 2009
IN THE next 48 hours, racing stakeholders face their most defining moment since the Racing Victoria Limited model was launched almost a decade ago.
It is possible that the discontent within the industry could result in a motion to spill the board of RVL at Thursday's annual general meeting.
There are 10 bodies involved in racing - the three Melbourne racing clubs, the owners, trainers, jockeys, breeders, country racing, jumps racing and the unions. If eight of those groups decide their relationship with the RVL board is untenable, they will push for the spill.
Last Friday the outpouring of disbelief could be heard from jockeys to owners, breeders to unions across the nation following RVL's decision to end jumps racing.
All these groups came to the realisation that they had stood back for far too long and let RVL dictate policy that was at odds as to how their sport should be run. However, jumps racing was just the catalyst for a wider-reaching feeling of discontent.
Whether you like jumps racing or not, RVL has created a sore on the back of this industry that has been festering for some time.
There have been several recent examples of poor management: the handling of the jumps racing debate, the backtracking over the regulations of whip use, the controversy over padded whips and the bungling of hearings such as the one that saw Damien Oliver banned for a month over an illegal substance and then the result overturned on appeal.
Starting next week, another anti-racing group will launch their ''ban two-year-old racing in Australia''. Yep, poster-size prints of 90-kilogram men on 14-hand horses are already in circulation.
Five years ago if you said that limited use of padded whips would be racing policy, jumps racing banned, and that the Warrnambool three-day carnival in May would stage all flat races by the year 2011, you would be accused of lunacy.
Jumps racing in this state has been in place for 150 years but what the public has not been told is that the campaign against jumps racing was basically stage-managed by a group of 16 protesters and partially financed by an American citizen.
In fact, the American, who has never been on an Australian racecourse, has now been credited with the dismantling of the jumping game using only four lieutenants in his bid for success.
Three men and a year-11 schoolgirl from the southern suburbs managed to infiltrate the mindset of RVL with a concerted campaign last winter.
Using a photographer and a statistician they went to every racecourse that held a jumping event in the past 10 months. After recording each injury, however minor, the photographer snapped the smallest blemish from a sprung plate to a broken neck. This information was then sent to media outlets. Yesterday, RVL chief executive Rob Hines said that he and his board were concerned at the image of horses dying in jumping races.
He didn't mention the image of racing during the spring carnival, with anxious parents waiting outside the St Kilda Road police lock-up, hoping their school-aged children who'd been drinking and fighting were given bail.
No, RVL wouldn't dare bite the hand that feeds it - preferring to bully a minor section of the industry.
It's understood that two racing club chairmen may hold the balance of power to any spill of the RVL board.
In the past, stakeholders have preferred to whisper their misgivings behind closed doors, far from the boot of the Minister for Racing, Rob Hulls.
This time, however, the racing world will be watching intently at who goes weak at the knees and, from the feeling out there, no committee lunch will be big enough to hide behind for the stakeholder who buckles first. - Patrick Bartley, The Age.
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