Jonathan Munz: The huge mistake Racing Victoria can avoid with new chairman

Victorian Thoroughbred Racehorse Owners boss Jonathan Munz has warned Racing Victoria not to appoint a chairman from existing board members, saying it would be damaging and a huge mistake.

The crowd at the 2023 Melbourne Cup.

By JONATHAN MUNZ (Victorian Thoroughbred Racehorse Owners Chairman)

It would be a huge mistake to appoint a new Racing Victoria chairman from amongst Racing Victoria’s much criticised incumbent directors.

Those incumbents include Tim Eddy, who it is reported has been annointed even before the two new directors, Powercor boss Tim Rourke and industry stalwart Mark Player, have attended their first board meeting.

Tim Rourke and Mark Player are excellent choices as new directors of Racing Victoria, but the industry has been clear that the majority of the board needs to be replaced and that the new chairman needs to be a fresh outside person.

There are eight Racing Victoria directors, plus the CEO and appointing only two new directors to a poorly performing board, without having one of the new directors being appointed as the chairman, is not going to be acceptable or sensible.

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The Minister originally promised in September last year to procure a refresh of the majority of the board, after Racing Victoria Members were about to vote to remove the majority of RVL directors.

He subsequently reversed on that commitment and proposed to appoint three new directors with Gill McLachlan as chairman, with the promise that the new chairman would then recommend and decide which further directors needed to be replaced.

Gillon McLachlan at Warrnambool.

The Minister has delayed us since January waiting for McLachlan and now looks like he has again changed tack, and is proposing to limit us to only two new directors and impose Tim Eddy on the industry as the new RVL chair, which no-one wants.

There has been widespread dissatisfaction and lack of confidence from industry participants and race clubs in the Racing Victoria Board, resulting in an effective no confidence vote in the Board in February and the subsequent forced departure of discredited CEO Andrew Jones.

The board has been strongly criticised for its insufficient racing experience and knowledge and lack of commercial expertise and has been seen to have done a poor job.

I have observed that in many ways the board members were in fact more culpable than Andrew Jones and it is not enough to just be rid of Jones without meaningful change at board level.

They set the policy and enabled the poor decisions and dysfunction.

It makes no sense and would be inappropriate to leave them in charge or let them choose the new CEO.

Former Racing Victoria CEO Andrew Jones.

Apart from that, most people would recognise the absurdity of the Minister taking more than 12 months to appoint a chairman who he clearly did not think was appropriate to appoint more than a year ago.

Logically, Tim Rourke should be the obvious new Chairman.

While I had not dealt with him previously, I was a member of the Advisory Panel that interviewed him and he is impressive and sensible.

He clearly has superior qualifications to the existing board members, even if they were not surrounded by pre-existing controversies.

He brings no baggage and will be accepted by race clubs and industry participants.

Choosing Tim Eddy or one of the other incumbents as Chair would in my view be a huge mistake and will result in unnecessary conflict, when what the racing industry now requires is common sense and unity.

Originally published as Jonathan Munz: The huge mistake Racing Victoria can avoid with new chairman