No apologies for turf war
PETER V’landys, the architect of Sydney’s $9.5 million threerace push into Melbourne’s Spring Carnival, says Racing New South Wales will reveal its mystery funding source for The Golden Eagle, The Bondi Stakes and The Golden Gift races after Christmas.
While there has been speculation the lucrative prizemoney on offer could come from a new bet-type, V’landys said he was not yet at liberty to fully explain where the money was coming from.
“We are in a joint venture — I won’t say who it is with — and at the moment that is commercially sensitive, so basically until that is finalised, I would be in breach of my responsibility,” V’landys said.
“I can’t say what it is … it will probably be [unveiled] after Christmas.”
The Racing New South Wales chief executive yesterday made no apologies for the decision to launch the $7.5 mil- lion The Golden Eagle — a contest for four-year-olds, which will become the second richest race in Australia behind The Everest — on Flemington’s famed Derby Day.
He was surprised by the verbal return of serve from VRC chairman Amanda Elliott and chief executive Neil Wilson, but said he would have been “derelict” in his duty and headed for “Centrelink” if he hadn’t tried to maximise revenue for New South Wales racing.
“I respect they are trying to defend their territory. However, I have got to say that nobody has a monopoly on anything,” V’landys said.
“We don’t see it as being in opposition to them, we just see it as complementing the day.”
V’landys said suggestions Racing Australia needed more powers to bring the two states closer together were a nonsense and claimed some racing administrators failed to understand the way in which the wagering dollar is now carved up.
“I think they are all forgetting that with the advent of the new wagering operators, the corporate betting operators and betting exchanges, the wagering market has become national,” V’landys said.
“She [Amanda Elliott] is competing for New South Wales punters’ dollars and Victorian punters’ dollars, and so am I.
“If I stood here and did nothing, I would get no revenue and she would get millions.”