The plot to close tracks that ‘would have started World War III’

The former chief of Greyhound Racing NSW said a racing minister warned him “World War III” would break out if track numbers were reduced, part of the political pressure his organisation was subjected to as it sought to maintain minimum safety standards.

Tony Mestrov, who led the code between 2017 and 2022, told a parliamentary inquiry the government did not have an appetite for closing facilities “due to the political nature of each of the tracks”.

Greyhounds race at Wentworth Park in Sydney.Credit: Louise Kennerley

He said GRNSW had devised a five-year strategy in 2021 to rationalise and optimise tracks, slashing the number from 28 to 15 to make them more cost-effective to meet minimum standards.

But he said when he approached then racing minister Kevin Anderson, the Nationals MP for Tamworth who is now shadow minister for racing, gaming, tourism and the arts, he received a blunt reply.

“Kevin said there would be World War III,” Mestrov told the inquiry, indicating he was referring to the anticipated reaction of clubs. “That was his kind of statement.”

His testimony came as the inquiry was presented with a confidential GRNSW board briefing paper from 2021 in which the state’s greyhound tracks were superimposed on a NSW electoral map.

The investigation into GRNSW was launched in July by Racing Minister David Harris to examine explosive allegations about animal welfare standards made by the governing body’s former chief vet Alex Brittan. The claims of inflated rehoming rates and underestimated euthanasia figures put a blowtorch back on an industry that was almost closed down seven years ago amid shocking findings of cruelty, among them live baiting and mass killings of dogs.

Tony Mestrov ran Greyhound Racing NSW for five years.Credit: Nikki Short

The inquiry is also examining track safety, as well as concerns over alleged conflicts of interest and GRNSW’s financial management. It is expected to heat up this month when Brittan and Mestrov’s successor as chief executive, Rob Macaulay, give evidence.

But the appearance of Mestrov, who took over at GRNSW after former premier Mike Baird backtracked on a ban, has shone a light on the clout greyhound racing has in Macquarie Street, given its importance to regional areas, home to the majority of tracks.

GRNSW operates independently of government, but the racing minister appoints directors and can remove the board.

Nationals MP Kevin Anderson was racing minister under the NSW Coalition government.Credit: Flavio Branceleone

Mestrov, who has been CEO of National Rugby League club Manly for the past three years, said Anderson had told him he was not to close a track unless the club and the local MP both consented to it.

“I recollect that, yes. That was – that was what had to happen before we shut a track,” he told the inquiry.

He said he took the minister’s position as a “flat no” to closing tracks, and none were shut. Only two, at Bathurst and Lismore, have since been closed, but that was due to flooding.

Mestrov told the inquiry he had a passion for making greyhound racing as safe as possible and “it was quite clear there was too many tracks and probably substandard tracks, to be really fair”.

He said the cost of maintaining minimum standards at so many tracks to reduce injury rates was not sustainable, but “there’s no way I could have just decided to shut tracks”.

He said he “did as much I could in a softly way” by minimising racing at non-TAB tracks and trying to turn venues not deemed up to scratch into trial tracks only.

Anderson was contacted for comment but did not respond.

Mestrov was asked about the image in a GRNSW document on track optimisation from 2021 in which tracks were marked as black dots on an electoral map.

Asked why it was relevant to plot the tracks against electoral boundaries, he replied: “I think yesterday we spoke about the political nature of greyhound racing and the origins of it. So, yep, that’s why we did it.”

GRNSW in May announced plans to close a handful of country tracks as part of a new track safety and welfare strategy. Another track in the Labor-held electorate of Maitland was initially to be shut, but its future was reportedly salvaged at the 11th hour.

Asked whether the government had any role in a decision on Maitland being reversed, a spokesman for Harris said: “Decisions to shut down greyhound tracks are an operational matter for GRNSW.”

Macaulay resigned in July, days after a report by Brittan was made public. He has since launched unfair dismissal proceedings against GRNSW at the Fair Work Commission.

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