FROM THE SHERIFF'S DESK: FORGET 'INDEPENDENT' BOARDS. RACING NEEDS TO BE RUN BY RACING PEOPLE

By John Schreck | Wednesday, December 21, 2016

John Schreck, a former Chief Steward in both Sydney and Hong Kong, has seen both the colourful and the dark sides of racing. His wealth of experience and his deep knowledge of racing matters across the board is unquestioned and the reputation he built as a racing ‘lawman’ remains firmly entrenched in racing’s history. Shreck’s personal blog, ‘From the Sheriff’s Desk', appears exclusively on HRO.

I see they are now going to appoint a racing commission in Victoria as they have done in New South Wales and as they have done in Queensland.

So in the three eastern states in Australia racing will effectively be controlled by a commission.

The Victorian government’s decision to change the Racing Act and legislate to have an independent board means they will have an ‘independent’ board appointed by the government ... which is just a racing commission by another name, that’s all.

Whether you like that name or not ... and some people don’t want to use the word commission ... that is what it is.

It is a government appointed body to run the sport as happens in most states of the United States.

Racing Commissions in the United States have just about destroyed the sport so I hope racing commissions turn out differently in Australia then they have in the United States.

And if you want to use the description, ‘independent board’ ... you have to ask yourself, is there really such a thing?

In my opinion ... absolutely not!

If they are appointed by the government they are responsible to the government and therefore they are not independent of the government, which simply means they are not independent at all.

And, if the government changes, the makeup of the members of the board generally changes.

That is why there is such a strong perception out there that it becomes ‘jobs for the boys’ ... which some people see as an inevitable outcome irrespective of which side of the politics is in power!

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So, in a perfect world, who should be running racing?

The racing people ... no question about it.

It is a unique sport and I know governments worry about conflicts of interest and all that sort of thing, but most sporting organisations have some conflicts of interest and they live with it and move forward successfully.

The cricket team is selected by ex-players. In football, the ex-players of have a big hand in the administration of the game ... and so it goes on.

The point being that possible conflicts of interest can easily be managed by the right people, not least because they bring a significant understanding of the sport to their role as well as a real passion and love for the game in which they are involved ... and you cannot get more essential criteria than that for successful management.

In racing's case, that can only come into play if racing people run racing.

The current reality though is that both governments and racing authorities are still shuffling the pack trying to find a decent working model for racing ... which is proving to be elusive to them.

They should be looking at all of those successful sporting bodies around the country.

As I have pointed out, they should be able to find the key to the solution to racing’s on-going management problem right there!