G1X May 18th- interesting news for RV plans...

NEWS / HORSE RACING
Who governs at Racing Victoria?

BY BRUCE CLARK - @SNOWYCLARK
14 hours ago Horse Racing
RV chairman David Moodie. (Pic: Vince Caligiuri/Getty)
It is a significant date on the calendar – next Tuesday. It’s not a race meeting but a date specially convened by Racing Victoria to consolidate and pursue changes to its own governance structure.
Yet little publicity has been given to it. The ramifications are enormous and G1X.com.au can reveal the chasm between the governing body (RV) and the shareholders and stakeholders is wide.
Watching over these developments is Racing Minister Martin Pakula, who has long called for RV to lead the way on changes – to what he describes as an out-dated model that “went out with button-up boots” – and is his view, move towards one that ensures independence and integrity.
That is something RV has confirmed it is committed to doing and has been doing so in a consultative process over the past six months.
“The Board has made a recommendation to its 14 Members on a reform of the Board director appointment process,” RV chief executive Bernard Saundry said.
“The recommended change centres upon replacing the current member voting structure with a new appointment panel that will include nominees from industry groups as well as a nominee of the Minister for Racing. The recommended change is to ensure that the process is commensurate with modern governance standards and delivers diverse and highly-skilled future Boards.”
RV presented its case and proposed new structure to the three metropolitan racing clubs, Country Racing Victoria and industry participant representative groups (that’s 14 members) on Tuesday.
But they see the RV proposal as nothing more than a “power grab” to seize industry control for themselves. Hence a standoff is looming, along with a possible no-confidence vote in RV and its chairman David Moodie, and an obvious trigger for Pakula to move in and impose his own model.

Martin Pakula. (Pic: Quinn Rooney/Getty).
Under the RV proposal, the new board make-up would allow the three city clubs (VRC, MRC and MVRC) one vote between them, one for Country Racing Victoria (CRV), one for industry groups, and one Government appointment. The sticking point is that RV has proposed a vote and that includes the nomination of the chairman (total five votes).
“The chances of this getting up are a million to one,” one club representative told G1X.com.au.
“Basically RV is asking the clubs to virtually give up their rights and hand total control to RV who control the election. We want the government to have more say and RV to simply handle nominations and skill check the applicants or nominations then stand back from the process.”
RV said Tuesday’s process was that their nominations sub-committee would address the clubs’ concerns and response to the proposal before deciding whether it would proceed further to the 10 industry groups (comprising representatives from TROA (owners) ATA (trainers), TBV (breeders), AJRA (jumps racing), VBA (bookmakers), VJA (jockeys) and four union groups.
RV said the special general meeting and industry body members meetings are both scheduled to proceed on Tuesday, or may be deferred to a later date, depending on the outcome of the Board's considerations.
“Whatever the outcome, the Board is committed to ensuring that the industry has a modern governance model to best serve its members, stakeholders, customers and participants,” Saundry said.
Pakula told G1X.com.au last November on The Agenda, governance revue was critical. He said at the time the current antiquated structure of quotas and ballots was “not ideal”.
He said he has discussed with RV chairman David Moodie and Saundry the ideal governance model. He said it is not the “best practice” to have a process where the people who govern can, effectively, “be the people governing themselves”.
“I have had some discussions with Racing Victoria about that, but I don’t think we want to move towards a situation where we have a full statutory authority all appointed by the minister.
“Right now what you have is the integrity controlled by Racing Victoria and you have a Racing Victoria Board which effectively has a lot of racing stakeholders. That is not ideal,” he said.
“I have always said we need to be more independent in terms of the governance model — separate the integrity somewhat without throwing the baby out with the bath water.”
The Board model that Pakula is advocating is one where there is still racing acumen, but greater separation from the stakeholders. “The current board includes several owners, including the chairman,” Pakula told G1X.com.au at the time.
The implication here is that Pakula and the government have given the industry ample time to sort out a new model moving forward and as of today there is a Grand Canyon between agreement and implementation.
A notion of, “if you can’t sort it out, I will,” via the Racing Minister is looming for the Victorian racing industry.
It’s why Tuesday’s meeting is absolutely crucial to Victorian racing’s long-term future with the clubs feeling marginalised and believing RV is trying to seize total control to rule from the top.
SEE COMMENTS

At least one conclusion might be drawn from this.

Fantastic news. I also move for V'landys to head down there to show the Victorians how it's done...

Wonder if Terry Bailey will apply for the job?

Just announced that a minimum bet law will be introduced into Victoria by october 2016. About time and now maybe the damned bookies will actually have to do some work instead of thinking they can just take money off people.

No details yet but I imagine will be similar to NSW.

Some of them are absolute doozies too

Lordy wrote: I got a text message mentioning a few big names possibly facing serious charges. On a broader scale up to 20 trainers and 30 jockeys under the microscope.

This story is dynamite if true. All cheats need to go or the industry will suffer. It doesn’t matter if they are leading riders or trainers. Plenty of honest hardworking jockeys and trainers coming through.
I have heard jockeys and trainers names and on the jockey side, there were not many surprises but you will be stunned at some who will be named.

Winner of race 3 in SA today was a moral

“WICKED SCANDAL”

Text this morning from a local trainer friend (Ballarat) At least they're being seen to be proactive

Drug and Breath tests at track this morning. Talk about chaos in the stripping shed. They were bringing every horse with a rider on into the shed. FML, horses going everywhere. Most have never been in there, ever

Big weekend on the gear in Ballarat, must be trying to catch a few out

I’m hearing prominent trainers vets are implicated.... those cleanskins may not be so clean

skippy123 wrote: Big trots trainer arrested today- allegedly same gear as other DQ’d persons... may explain the breath testing etc at a certain race club today