by Brian de Lore
Part One published 16 August 2018
In Australia, the administration of racing and especially New South Wales has never been in better shape thanks to the intellect, planning, and vision of Racing NSW CEO Peter V’landys and his former chairperson John Messara.
Australian racing administration hasn’t ever had a better duo than these two who came from similar backgrounds, were thrust into Australian life in their youth and who both developed a resolve that left success as the only possible outcome in the environment they faced years ago as new Australians.
Messara was born in the Mediterranean Egyptian town of Alexandria, was French-speaking and only 11-year-old when alone he was sent to his uncle and aunt in Sydney to commence the serious part of his education at an English-speaking school.
His Lebanese father and Italian mother followed only three years later, and by that time the young Messara by the very nature of this experience had developed a good degree of independence and self-preservation.
V’landys was born not that far away to north-east in the Greek Island of Kythera. His family were poor but migrated by ship to Australia when V’landys was just three-years-old, in search of a better life.
“I think John Messara had it even tougher than I did,” V’landys told The Informant at his Sydney office this week, “because I know John’s history. He had to leave his parents for three years and come out to Australia very young.
“Whereas, when I came out I was only three years old – we travelled out by ship because my parents couldn’t afford the air flight – we were a pretty poor family; we battled. That’s often a good thing because when you battle in life you make things cost effective and learn to cope.
“John’s a little bit different to me in that his father was interested in horse racing in Egypt and Australia. As a young guy, I would have to get someone older to bet for me. In fifth class my maths teacher taught me how the tote worked, and he was the one that said to me I should be an accountant – my heart and soul had been set on teaching, but he talked out of it.
“We are different to the average Australian,” conceded V’landys at the suggestion something in each of the two’s DNA set them up to succeed in Australia. The parallels continued later in their lives when both became the recipients of ‘Member of the Order of Australia’ for services to racing.
“You have to work a lot harder than other people do to succeed and I did work harder, but I couldn’t have done it without the example of my father because he’d often work from 8.30 in the morning and come home at midnight after a double shift.
“His quality of life wasn’t great because he sacrificed a lot for us. Work ethic is very important, and I always believed you only get success if you work hard.”
V’landys was appointed CEO and a board member of Racing NSW in 2004 and now after 14 years is easily the longest-serving CEO in Australian racing but also the most successful. He was just three years into the job when the equine influenza outbreak in 2007 and that proved to be the ultimate test.
The equine flu outbreak in NSW had the potential to devastate racing beyond repair, but careful management and innovation by V’landys saw 50,000 full and part-time jobs saved, and the earliest possible return to racing after a five-month hiatus.
V’landys explained, “The influenza saga could have wiped out racing in NSW for decades. What people didn’t realise is that we made the decision to incentivise the trainers to keep the horses in work, and the reason we did that is we wanted to have fit horses once we started to race again.
“Otherwise we may have needed a 10 to 12-week lead-time to get horses fit enough. But when they said we could race we virtually raced on the same day because all the horses were in full work.
“We had made it a daily compensation package, and from memory, it was $100/day. That was for all horses in work, and that had an economic multiplier throughout the industry – we made payments to jockeys, stablehands and everyone in the racing work-force while going through the drama. When the green light was shown we raced immediately with full fields.
“The alternative would have been waiting three months before commencing racing. It included 50,000 people; full-time, part-time, casuals – everybody. We were busy going through all the applications, and I didn’t realise there were that many horses in work – some of them must have come out of retirement,” grinned V’landys, “but we didn’t mind that because the money was getting to people that needed it.
“We harassed the hell out of the state government and got money out of them too and learned a lot in that process. At first, the federal government offered us $5 million and I didn’t think that was appropriate, but we ended up getting $235 million. It was fortunate that we had Peter McGauran as Agricultural Minister and he understood racing – I told him to get me a meeting with the prime minister and sure enough one Sunday he rings me and says he’ll give an hour.
“So, we went to see him and that day he signed the cheque for the compensation package. He understood immediately how it would operate and as soon as he was convinced and approved it was all-hands-on-deck to get the money out.”
The compensation V’landys gleaned from a sympathetic government saved the day, but it was his stroke of genius in inventing racefields that turned the financial fortunes of racing around.
“When I started in 2004 I could see the threat of corporate bookmakers, and I wanted to ensure we would stay financially viable,” remembers V’landys. “I went and got a 200-page advice from a leading copyright solicitor here in Sydney who told me we had copyright and bookmakers should be paying us for using our race fields to bet on horses.
“We promoted the introduction of the legislation but were challenged under the constitution by the corporate bookmakers – what people didn’t realise is that they wanted to pay nothing.
“It was a three-year process that went all the way to the High Court of Australia, and we won. That has resulted in racing and sports earning $260 million annually – money we would never have had. They are still battling in the UK to get it through their legislation.”
V’landys travelled to New Zealand five years ago to encourage the then National Party government to pursue its own legislation but racing Minister of the day Nathan Guy didn’t move on it. Now, it has been addressed but will only be passed into law once it can be married into any new legislation specified in the yet to be released Messara Report.
“That is going to have a monumental effect in New Zealand because it will stimulate prizemoney and have a positive outcome on the racing economy, enthused V’landys.
“Racing NSW alone generates $120 million a year out of racefields legislation, and we wouldn’t be in the financial position we are in without it, and either would any other state in Australia – Victoria relies on it more than any other state.
“It was driven by myself and the board and there was a quite a traumatic period there for a while because people thought we would lose. We got scathing criticism because many believed we were done for, but I never ever thought we would lose. But just in case I went and got the address of Centrelink (unemployment office) But we did win, and it’s had enormous ramifications for not only racing but sport.”
Another huge V’landys win relating to taxation came with John Messara as chairman – NSW was being taxed more than any other state in Australia.
“No government have ever reduced that type of taxation, but John and myself lobbied the board, and we got racing an extra $100 million – a lot of lobbying the government,”
“I nearly got kicked out of the Premier’s office, but we stuck to our guns until we got what we thought was right. We weren’t looking for a hand-out but just to be on a level playing field with every other state in Australia.
“A more recent one which also required a lot of lobbying the NSW Government was the Consumption Tax from which we got an extra $40 million a year. So, we are now in a good financial position, and that’s why prizemoney has increased to the levels it has increased. We pay around $260 million in prizemoney which is about $20 million more than Victoria.”
“We have 200 more race meetings than Victoria, but we have never closed down any clubs or racecourses at any time. Closing them down you save peanuts and lose macadamias because if racing is not present in these areas you become irrelevant – people don’t see racing then – I believe you should have a presence in all these places unless it’s not cost-effective.”
Next week: Peter V’landys Part Two talks about the creation of The Championships, The Everest, the future of racing, and offers some advice to the NZ TAB.
