The Everest: Restrictions pressure for world’s richest race on turf
Peter V’landys says there is no sense in NSW trying to get Queensland to open its border while at the same time reducing crowds at sporting events.
NSW
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The racing industry has already scaled its own Mount Everest to get to the biggest event of the year — now it just needs Gladys Berejiklian to come to the party.
Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys said: “By the time The Everest comes around we will have had 22 days of no community transmission.
“It makes no sense for us to be telling Queensland to be opening borders because we have no risk, then restricting the number of people attending the race.”
Last year The Everest, the world’s richest race on turf, packed 43,000 into Royal Randwick, but the one person per four square metre rule this year will restrict that to just 5000.
“NSW has been a leader in keeping the economy going so it doesn’t make sense to pull back now,” Mr V’landys said.
When the pandemic began Mr V’landys moved quickly to keep the racing industry running — ensuring the equivalent of 27,600 full-time jobs and pumping $3.5bn into the economy.
“We knew all about biosecurity and how to protect ourselves because we did our training for that with equine influenza more than a decade ago,” he said.
“When something like this came along we were prepared.”
Mr V’Landys applied the lessons learned from that to keeping racing in NSW running and, as chairman of the Australian Rugby League Commission, went on the front foot to keep the NRL alive.
He put his reputation on the line to ensure both sports could keep going.
“When you do that you really rely on people doing the right thing and I am so proud that the vast majority of people in racing and rugby league stuck by the rules,” he said.
But steering two major sporting codes through a pandemic has taken a huge personal toll.
“The adrenaline is pumping in the heat of the battle, but when the pressure comes off you collapse in a heap,” Mr V’landys said.
“This is the time you have got to stand up and make the effort.
“There are a lot of people who are doing it far tougher than me.”
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However, Mr V’Landys concedes that the next month is “shaping up to be pretty hectic”, with racing’s spring carnival, the NRL finals, State of Origin and further time in the witness box over his defamation case against the ABC. And then there are the curve balls, such as the allegations levelled at Rabbitohs star Sam Burgess, which Mr V’landys said were “allegations that have to be tested” and Burgess himself has denied.
Among the many looking forward to the Everest is trainer Anthony Cummings, whose horse Libertini stormed home in the Premiere Stakes at Randwick on Saturday to put her into contention for a start in one of the final two slots available.
“She‘d be one of the main chances,” Mr Cummings said after she beat Nature Strip and Classique Legend on Saturday.
Originally published as The Everest: Restrictions pressure for world’s richest race on turf
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