By JONATHAN MUNZ (President of Victorian Thoroughbred Racehorse Owners)
It would be a big mistake to appoint a new Racing Victoria president from among the much criticized current Racing Victoria directors.
Those incumbents include Tim Eddy, who was reportedly appointed even before the two new directors, Powercor boss Tim Rourke and industry stalwart Mark Player, attended their first board meeting directive.
Tim Rourke and Mark Player are excellent choices as Racing Victoria’s new directors, but the industry has made it clear that the majority of the board needs to be replaced and the new chairman needs to be a fresh outsider.
There are eight directors of Racing Victoria, plus the CEO, and appointing just two new directors to a poorly performing board, without one of the new directors being appointed chairman, will not be acceptable or sensible.
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The Minister originally promised in September last year to renew the majority of the board, after Racing Victoria members were about to vote to remove the majority of RVL directors.
He later revoked that commitment and proposed appointing three new directors with Gill McLachlan as chairman, with the promise that the new chairman would recommend and decide which additional directors should be replaced.
Gillon McLachlan in Warrnambool.
The Minister has delayed us since January waiting for McLachlan and now it seems he has changed course again and is proposing to limit us to just two new directors and impose Tim Eddy on the industry as the new chairman of RVL, something no one wants.
There has been widespread dissatisfaction and lack of confidence from industry participants and racing clubs in the Racing Victoria Board of Directors, resulting in an effective vote of no confidence in the Board in February and the subsequent forced departure of the Disgraced CEO Andrew Jones.
The board has been heavily criticized for its insufficient racing experience and knowledge and lack of commercial experience and has been considered to have done a poor job.
I have observed that in many ways the board members were actually more culpable than Andrew Jones and it is not enough to get rid of Jones without significant change at the board level.
They set the policy and allowed bad decisions and dysfunction.
It makes no sense and would be inappropriate to leave them in charge or let them choose the new CEO.
Andrew Jones, former CEO of Racing Victoria.
That aside, most people would recognize the absurdity of the Minister taking more than 12 months to appoint a president that he clearly did not consider appropriate to appoint more than a year ago.
Logically, Tim Rourke should be the obvious new president.
While I had not dealt with him before, I was a member of the Advisory Panel that interviewed him and he is impressive and down to earth.
He clearly has superior qualifications than the current board members, even if they were not surrounded by pre-existing controversies.
It comes with no luggage and will be accepted by racing clubs and industry participants.
Choosing Tim Eddy or one of the other incumbents as president would, in my opinion, be a huge mistake and will result in unnecessary conflict, when what the racing industry requires now is common sense and unity.
