Peter V’landys and Aaron Morrison vow to work together for good of racing during Asian Racing Conference panel in Japan

Racing leaders were urged to collaborate more during an Asian Racing Conference panel which included NSW boss Peter V’landys and Victorian counterpart Aaron Morrison.

Peter V'landys told the Asian Racing Conference the racing industry will be better off if it works together. Picture: Richard Dobson

Asian Racing Federation chairman Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges has urged racing leaders globally to “embrace change” and “make much quicker progress” to futureproof the sport.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club chief executive opened the 40th Asian Racing Conference in Sapporo, Japan on Wednesday.

“Our challenges we feel are significant and we feel strongly that if we want to manage these challenges, overcome these challenges,” Engelbrecht-Bresges said.

“It is not one single jurisdiction can do this, but as a sport working together.”

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Engelbrecht-Bresges said collaboration would help racing combat significant challenges, including industry fragmentation, social acceptability, growth of illegal and offshore betting and an ageing customer base.

“I strongly feel we have to embrace change and we have to make much quicker progress,” Engelbrecht-Bresges said.

“The progress should be first of all how we can embrace change and collaborate more.”

Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys echoed the sentiment during a “state of play” discussion, which included Racing Victoria counterpart Aaron Morrison.

Aaron Morrison says there are common challenges for racing.

“I think Winfried hit the nail on the head again in his speech,” V’landys said.

“We have a competition outside, that’s our competition.

“Yet we seem to fight amongst ourselves all the time.

“We have a civil war happening in the racing industry, while our competitors take that advantage.

“If we unite as an industry, we should be taking those competitors on.

“We should be taking sports betting on, we should be taking on other forms of entertainment.

“But what are we focused on? Fighting amongst ourselves. The sooner we stop doing that and sabotaging ourselves, the better the industry will be.”

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Morrison shared the viewpoints.

“We’ve got common challenges,” Morrison said.

“We’ve got a lot of challenges we are facing, from a regulatory perspective, taxation and changes to the industry funding model.

“We are working very hard to look at re-establishing things like the pattern committee and making sure Racing Australia as a national entity is more effective as an advocate.”

HKJC chief Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges has called on racing leaders to collaborate more.

Engelbrecht-Bresges identified trends globally, including Australia, Asia and Europe, where attendance, wagering, breeding and overall interest in racing has either plateaued or fallen.

“We are still in the stage where we say we are not ill, (but) are we healthy?” Engelbrecht-Bresges said.

“If you look at long term-sustainability … I have some concern.

“We have to analyse what our issues are, we have to look at strategies … I personally think we have huge opportunity but we can unlock this opportunity only if we work together.

“We have to act on it and we have to act on it fast because our competition is growing every day.”

Engelbrecht-Bresges advocated for more investment in science and technology to reduce the risk of catastrophic injuries to horses.

He also warned overregulation of legal gambling markets has “inadvertently” driven punters to illegal and offshore operations “offering better prices because they pay zero tax”.

Originally published as Peter V’landys and Aaron Morrison vow to work together for good of racing during Asian Racing Conference panel in Japan