Top executive quits AFL to take the reins at VRC with McLachlan in racing’s wings

The Victoria Racing Club has appointed AFL executive Kylie Rogers as its first female chief executive officer.

Rogers – the AFL’s highly regarded executive general manager, customer and commercial – is expected to step into the role in September, just months before Flemington’s Melbourne Cup carnival, replacing Steve Rosich, who will finish his term as VRC chief executive at the end of July.

Kylie Rogers will join the Victoria Racing Club as chief executive in September.Credit: VIctoria Racing Club

Rogers has worked on the AFL executive for almost seven years, and told colleagues on Monday that she would be stepping away from her role.

She is the second AFL executive to have departed for another major sporting organisation after missing out on the top job at league headquarters, after Travis Auld took over as chief executive of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation.

If, as has been foreshadowed, former AFL boss Gillon McLachlan becomes chairman of Racing Victoria, it could make for a closer relationship between the governing body and the club that runs the Melbourne Cup carnival.

Racing Victoria oversees rules, scheduling and prizemoney in thoroughbred horse racing, as well as providing vital industry funding to key stakeholders such as the three major Melbourne clubs – the VRC, Melbourne Racing Club and Moonee Valley Racing Club.

Kylie Rogers (left), with then AFL colleagues Gillon McLachlan, Laura Kane and Andrew Dillon at the 2023 Brownlow Medal. Credit: Getty Images

The Age reported last year that Racing Victoria’s relationship with the VRC had soured over a disagreement about which TV network should win the next batch of Cup carnival rights, which were in February secured by Nine, owner of this masthead.

Rogers will remain at the AFL until the end of August, while the league begins a process to find her replacement.

“To be able to play a role in helping keep the game affordable and accessible for all the fans is something I am really proud of,” she said in an AFL statement.

“I want to thank Andrew Dillon, and our previous CEO, Gillon McLachlan, for providing me and my family with an opportunity to be part of a game that means so much to so many.

“I will finish some projects and complete a short handover, before joining and leading the VRC later this year.”

VRC chairman Neil Wilson said Rogers would become the racing club’s 14th chief executive in its 160-year history.

“Kylie is one of Australia’s most well-known and respected senior executives,” Wilson said.

Wilson said Rogers, who had more than 25 years’ experience working across the AFL and media companies Mamamia and Network Ten, had been instrumental in the redevelopment of Marvel Stadium, as well as the growth of AFL’s digital and marketing platforms.

He said Rogers’ leadership would help “build the next generation of the Flemington Racecourse precinct as a year-round sport and entertainment destination”.

Last month, this masthead reported exclusively that Swedish pop group ABBA’s spectacular 3D virtual concert ABBA Voyage was close to signing a deal to build a permanent arena at Flemington.

Dillon said Rogers had always put fans first during her time in football.

“Whether securing grand final artists like Robbie Williams, to expanding the reach and impact of AFL Media, driving the marketing of AFLW or working with the clubs to better connect with fans across the country, she has done it all with passion and personality,” the AFL boss said.

“She had aspirations to be a CEO and to lead an organisation again, and while I am personally sad to lose her, I am also excited that she is going to run another one of our great sporting institutions in the VRC.”

In a statement released by the VRC on Monday, Rogers said she was thankful for the opportunity to join “an iconic and globally significant sporting organisation”.

Steve Rosich announced in April he was quitting his role as Victoria Racing Club CEO.Credit: Getty Images

“The VRC is one of the world’s greatest sporting and cultural institutions, and it is an organisation I am extremely excited and honoured to be leading,” she said.

“I love racing, and I look forward to working with Neil, the board, and the entire VRC team to elevate the club and the Flemington precinct into the future.”

Rosich, also a former chief executive at AFL club Fremantle, announced his resignation from the VRC in April, a decision that allowed him to start exploring employment outside his racing role, possibly back in football.

“Steve joined the club midway through the pandemic and successfully led the business out of COVID, achieving significant milestones, including record membership, growth in Cup Week crowds, and the new media and wagering partnership with TAB and Nine Entertainment,” Wilson said.

“Steve’s last day with the VRC will be 31 July, coinciding with the end of the racing season.”

Call to ban Weir for a decade

Racing Victoria stewards have called on the Victorian Racing Tribunal to disqualify Darren Weir for “no less than 10 years” on racing industry charges that include using an electronic shock device on horses and animal cruelty.

Stewards’ legal representative, Albert Dinelli, KC, made the submission at a VRT penalty hearing in Melbourne on Monday.

Dinelli said Weir’s “abhorrent” behaviour of shocking three horses while they ran on a treadmill, a week before the 2018 Melbourne Cup, “strikes at two pillars of the industry – animal welfare and integrity”.

Darren Weir pictured in 2019.Credit: Jason South

“The cruel conduct was not done for the good of the horses or for some other acceptable purpose, it was done as an attempt to improve the horse’s performance and displays, and very disappointingly for the industry as a whole, a willingness to adopt cruelty for that particular purpose,” Dinelli said.

Stewards are also seeking “no less than seven years” disqualification for Jarrod McLean and Tyson Kermond, who were both working with Weir and standing beside the trainer when he was applying electric shocks to the three horses, Red Cardinal, Yogi and Tosen Basil.

In a later submission, Ian Hill, KC, for Weir, called for the tribunal to impose a fine and no further period of disqualification.

Hill said the 2015 Melbourne Cup-winning trainer had already paid a significant financial and emotional cost, having been out of the sport since February 2019.

He said following the charges, Weir had become reclusive, embarrassed and ashamed.

“You have a man who is completely contrite, remorseful, rehabilitated,” Hill said.

Hill said the charges all arose from one course of conduct, and that there was no more than transitory discomfort for the three horses involved.

He said the cruelty offences were towards the bottom end of the scale of seriousness when compared to cases involving horses that had been starved over long periods of time and ultimately died or had to be put down.

Hill said if Weir were to be banned beyond the 5½ years he had already spent out of the industry he would lose his pre-training business at his Trevenson Park property at Baringhup, near Maldon, where he currently has 150 horses and employs 30 to 35 people.

The tribunal will hand down its penalty at a date to be fixed.

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