Ego and self-interest holding back national whip reform in racing
Racing Victoria boss Giles Thompson has kept a low profile this spring, his fifth and arguably busiest carnival in the chief executiveâs seat.
It wasnât intentional; those involved in Racing Victoriaâs COVID-19 planning decided their honcho wouldnât be considered an essential worker in the racing bubble.
Racing Victoria boss Giles Thompson.Credit:Getty
Behind the scenes, Thompson has led the sport through arguably its most challenging period and prevailed, avoiding the disruptions that hit other sports and industries while delivering record wagering results, record amounts of prizemoney to participants and a fatality-free Melbourne Cup.
Racing has also bolstered its media assets in that time, buying out radio station RSN to complement its arsenal of print, television and digital assets to take control of Victorian racingâs destiny.
By the sounds of it, Thompson would have been too busy to get on track anyway.
âIâve never been an essential worker. Very early on, we had to draw a line of who was essential and whoâs not,â Thompson told The Age.
âObviously a jockeyâs essential, obviously a trainerâs essential, obviously aspects of the media because youâve got to cover racing.
âAn administrator is not essential to that race, so I havenât been able to get out and about to the degree I would have liked to normally and thatâs why I havenât bumped into people ... because Iâve been kept out of that environment.â
Dealing with COVID-19Thompson says there have been more cases of COVID-19 in racing in the past eight weeks than the previous 18 months.
Wangaratta had a scare, and then Ciaron Maherâs stable at Ballarat was one of the major concerns, and that was followed by a positive case at Trent Busuttin and Natalie Youngâs Cranbourne stables.
But thorough scenario planning meant racing could contain the pandemic without losing race meetings.
âIn the first 18 months we had technically one outbreak in our world, and that was at Cranbourne,â he said.
âAt the beginning of the spring carnival, we had three in four days. We expected that, as things opened up, and thatâs one of the reasons why we mandated vaccines.
âA couple of months ago, the team at RV has been actively thinking about how to deal with the extra case loads, how do you cope with outbreaks in the lead-up to Derby Day? Scenario planning thatâs been forefront of mind; what happens when we get a COVID case in the participant group at 9pm on Derby eve? What happens then?
âWeâve been actively thinking through these scenarios for a few months, and itâs definitely held us in good stead.â
Turnover through the roof, but why?Record wagering levels depict a simple picture â" racing has engaged punters again this spring.
But was a carnival largely devoid of international involvement, due to Racing Victoriaâs stringent safety measures, key to that?
âItâs certainly too early to say whether the wagering was harmed or enhanced by the number of international competitors,â Thompson said.
âSimilarly you had Incentivise, which was an outstanding story that really resonated with the punters. â
But Thompson hopes a balance can be reached on getting elite internationals to compete in the springâs top-line races.
âI think everyone appreciates you donât want some big feature races thwarted by internationals,â he said.
âYou want the best locals taking on the best internationals, which add lots of colour and movement stories but also helps frank the quality of our local races. The fact Verry Elleegant and Incentivise beat Spanish Mission shows what great horses those two are.
Locally-trained Verry Elleegant and Incentivise defeated import Spanish Mission in the Cup.Credit:Getty Images
âBut itâs about producing our own to take them on. I donât think we should be shy of competing against the best horses in the world.â
Racing Victoriaâs expansion of its integrated media business has also been credited for the large wagering figures. A takeover of RSN radio station â" winning out over an offer from Craig Hutchisonâs SEN â" has bolstered the industryâs media assets, which include television station Racing.com, and Thompson believes thatâs only going to help grow the sportâs revenue streams.
âThis is not a strategy where weâre trying to take costs out of those businesses, that is not the purpose of it,â he said.
âI reckon it will cost us more to run those businesses.
âWe are believers that for racing to thrive going forward and for us to maximise our engagement with racegoers and punters, and those who love the horse, to really grow the audience, itâs best served by having an integrated racing media business.
âSimply selling our rights in the same way other sports do doesnât serve racing because thereâs so much indirect benefit of what those rights are, and the obvious one is wagering.
âItâs a really good legacy strategy for the future of racing.â
Whips in air due to national stalemateOne theme that might attach itself to Thompsonâs legacy in time is the reduction in permitted whip use, which he maintains is an agenda that has been set by community expectations.
But an ongoing stalemate with Racing NSW and Peter Vâlandys has left Victorian racing in limbo over its proposed whip reform.
âWeâve always said it needs to be reformed nationally, it needs to be discussed nationally,â he said.
âIt would clearly be crazy for jockeys to cross the borders, as they do for these big carnivals, but also the border communities like the Murray or the Tweed, to have different rules either side of those borders. Itâs a national issue, and weâd like to discuss it nationally because the racing and broader community requires us to.â
But Thompson is not optimistic Racing NSW is ready to come to the Racing Australia table. John Messara, who was appointed an independent chairman of the national board in May, has yet to succeed in getting all the states together in one room.
Racing Australia is waiting for Racing NSW, run by chief executive Peter Vâlandys (pictured), to come to the table.Credit:Getty
âItâs a poor outcome for Australian racing as a whole, really. It would be great if we could resolve it,â Thompson said.
âWe have a philosophical view that racing is a national sport â" itâs an international sport, of course. Itâs run at state level, but there are many, many things and important things that need to be dealt with on a national basis.
âWhen you deal with those things on a national basis, you have to leave a couple of things at the door. One of them is ego, and the other thing is your own stateâs particular self-interest. You have to try and have a discussion where you have to give away stuff and accept you wonât have full control, or you wonât get whatever you want, but you have to do that for the national good.
âWe believe in that; therefore we believe in a national body like Racing Australia, and weâd like to give it the power and authority it needs to be effective.â
But despite jockeys adapting to the rules to keep this monthâs Melbourne Cup incident-free from a whip breaches point of view, Thompson said whip reform remained on the agenda.
âIt doesnât surprise me the jockeys have adjusted to the rules, but thatâs not the question,â he said.
âThe question is what should those rules be and thatâs the discussion we should have.
âOne of the reasons of course itâs on the agenda is because itâs an agenda thatâs being driven by community sentiment. The community in which we operate, which is the racing community, and the broader community, itâs important to them.
âWe donât get the choice to take it off the agenda.â
What does the future hold?The day will come when Thompson realises the sport needs a fresh voice to lead Victorian racing into its next era.
The former chief executive of Betfair is philosophical about what the future holds for him, and whether heâll still be in the top job five years from now.
âTo be frank, I donât know,â he said.
Racing Victoria chief executive Giles Thompson.Credit:Getty Images
âI am a believer that people shouldnât hang around forever. I think an organisation as complex and large and dynamic as something like RV does need to have fresh blood coming into it, particularly at senior levels.
âIâve never been a believer Iâd be here for life, I wonât be here for life, and exactly what that looks like I donât know.â
So what will Thompsonâs own legacy be?
âIn any role, all you could ever want is that the organisation and what it does is better than when you joined it, and when you leave, you leave knowing youâve given it your all and youâve approached things with the right compass.
âWhenever I face a challenge at RV, I try to face that challenge with, âwhat is best for racing as a whole in Victoria?â
âItâs a very simple edict and as long as youâve done that, then thatâs a good starting point.â
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