‘I’ll be clear, it’s not good enough’: Kylie Rogers’ plan to future-proof the Victoria Racing Club
The Melbourne Cup is an easy sell, but the Victoria Racing Club has also relied on the annual carnival for too long as its primary source of annual income. Under new CEO Kylie Rogers, that’s about to change.
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Kylie Rogers has skin in the game.
Personal. Professional. Financial.
The Victoria Racing Club chief executive has sold passion for a living in previous incarnations.
From the pop culture television phenomena, the likes of Melrose Place, Australian Idol and Big Brother, to fierce sporting tribalism at the AFL.
A new frontier in racing has Rogers, six months and change in the top job at Flemington, driven to succeed on and off the track.
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In an exclusive interview with this masthead, Rogers revealed the roadmap to future-proof the VRC.
The Melbourne Cup Carnival has always been an easy sell – as Australia’s biggest and best racing carnival by any metric, equine or economic – but also relied on for too long as the primary source of annual income.
The VRC last year reported a $24m loss including $14m in depreciation and amortisation on assets.
“It’s not good enough, I’ll be clear. It’s not good enough,” Rogers said.
“I respect people have looked at the headline number ($24m) and said that’s not good enough.
“Particularly if I was a (VRC) member and they have the right to ask questions.
“But the board and I are working hard to ensure we make the right decisions moving forward and we return to profitable levels and we have a really positive financial outlook.
“Our club must find a way to be profitable, our club must find a way to make budget and our club must find ways to be more effective and more efficient in decision making.
“That is my job. To ensure we’re being prudent, to ensure we’re utilising our park in the right way and making the right decisions to ensure we are profitable and we pour all of that money back into the industry.”
For one week of the year, centred on the first Tuesday in November, Flemington is the epicentre for Australian sport, food and fashion.
Rogers has a mandate and full support of the VRC board to monetise the other 51 weeks basically, including the 21 race dates at Headquarters.
“We have a precinct that runs 12 months of the year,” Rogers said.
“We welcome two million patrons to our precinct, have over 5000 events when you consider all the meetings and conferences across the four grandstands, plus the music festivals, plus, plus, plus.
“We have an amazing, alive and vibrant precinct for our partners to activate and engage customers with and that is our message to them, we are more than four days of the carnival.
“The carnival is critically important and it is globally recognised but they (corporate partners) have an opportunity to activate and amplify their brand across our precinct 12 months of the year.
“How are we using those events to bring new fans into racing? How do we get (patrons of new and existing events) to familiarise themselves with our precinct, be comfortable with our precinct … that’s the conversation I’m having with my team.
“How are we’re smart about utilising our precinct and then how do our partners engage?”
Rogers has the benefit of an inherited broadcast rights capital, a deal struck by the former Steve Rosich-led VRC administration, to blast out of debt next financial year.
“We have a really positive outlook and certainly from FY26, which for us kicks in in August,” Rogers said.
“We get to enjoy the totality of our new broadcasting arrangement with Tabcorp and Channel 9.
“We still have to cost manage and we still have to drive revenue but we’re in a great position if we make the right decisions moving forward to return to profit.
“We are forecasting profit (from FY26) if we do everything right.
“If we cost manage, if we utilise our precinct smartly, if we generate great experiences for our members and they keep coming back.
“If we utilise our park and we return our happy broadcast partners we’re in good shape.”
Rogers said Tabcorp chief executive Gillon McLachlan, who also inherited the broadcast deal, had been “a great support” – despite some question marks on how their friendship and previous working relationship at the AFL would impact their new roles.
Rogers was the AFL’s Executive General Manager Customer and Commercial during McLachlan’s long reign as AFL chief executive.
“Gill and I are great friends and he was my boss and colleague for eight years,” Rogers said.
“He’s now a very important client of the VRC and Racing Victoria.
“We had a giggle early on in our new roles as we were mid-negotiation on something and I said to him ‘jeez our friendship may not last this new set up’, but of course it will. He’s a great support.”
Rogers’ vision for the VRC is based on three key strategic pillars.
World class racing, events and experiences, “that is what we do and that is our core”, including best use of the 127 hectares of grounds and gardens.
Flemington remarkably boasts “the world’s largest elm collection” and “largest rose garden (16,500) in southern hemisphere”.
Community engagement and connection, “our social licence”, and financial discipline underpin the VRC board-approved three-year plan.
“I have, through working in businesses like Mamamia and the AFL, seen the power of what purpose can do for a business and the clarity it brings for a business,” Rogers said.
“We were lacking a purpose. We worked with the team on why do we get up in the morning?
“We wake up in the morning to celebrate the horse and that special connection between human and horse and we want to share that will all. That is our purpose.”
Rogers this week completed her VRC organisational rebuild with three new executive appointments.
A major but “necessary” restructure last year, including 40 redundancies, cut the VRC to the core.
“That was really hard, really tough on our club, really tough on our people and we lost really great people but it was necessary to ensure we right-sized ourselves,” Rogers said.
“I called that out on my first day, I brought the business together and said … I will do it once and we will get it right and we will rebuild.”
Rogers said she had forged “a strong relationship” with VRC chairman Neil Wilson and the board as she worked to overhaul the business.
Wilson, a VRC board member since 2012, served as chief executive from 2017-20 – and Rogers acknowledged that Wilson’s experience and knowledge was beneficial to the cause.
The VRC board “approved and ratified” Rogers’ ambition to have the “right people sitting in the right seats doing the right things with the right capability to deliver on the strategy”.
And Rogers, with her vast commercial experience, said that support had allowed her “to run a revenue lens through the organisation from the top down” – even while her own education on racing was a work in progress.
Racehorse ownership, small shares in more than 20 young horses, has already provided an invaluable insight.
“I am very committed to this new industry of mine, I won’t tell you how many because that’s the rule, right, you’re not allowed to actual tell but it’s more than 20 now,” Rogers said.
“It’s a big part of my learning and I’m on a steep learning curve.
“I know what it’s like to be a patron of this park but I didn’t really know what it was like to be an owner, my husband and I had that experience before but none of the horses went anywhere.
“It’s important for me to put my feet into the shoes of participants of our industry, to understand where they come from.”
Rogers has attended most of the monthly Flemington trainers’ meetings since she started last September.
“I’m lucky enough to have 19 trainers on this park and I’m spending as much time as I can with those trainers to understand what it takes to be successful from a training perspective,” Rogers said.
“I’m doing the same with the jockeys and I’m doing my bit to learn … I now truly appreciate the care and passion of everyone in racing.
“You don’t get up at 3am every day unless you love the horse and I think that needs to be more widely understood and celebrated.”
Her racehorse portfolio includes stakes-placed Lindsay Park-trained colt Winmar, Queensland-based two-year-old Lockyer and unraced Wembley Stadium.
Rogers also has interest in a Wild Ruler yearling filly, bought by Ciaron Maher, and a daughter of Zousain, with Patrick and Michael Payne.
“I get a buzz from being an owner but I’m also getting a buzz from learning about this new industry of mine,” Rogers said.
“I’m thrilled I’ve done it and I really have fallen in love with the characters of this industry.
“We’re full of characters, full of personality and full of passion and pride for what they do.
“Who doesn’t want a piece of that?”
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