While Waterhouse said she did not know why the program had been pulled, she did offer that it would be most unfortunate “if you are not free to speak your mind in Australia”.
According to the prominent trainer, the wide-ranging interview covered a number of controversial topics including the future of the Rosehill racecourse.
Peter McGauran (right) with Premier Chris Minns at the announcement of the plan in December 2023.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
“It’s the hottest issue in racing,” she said of the proposed sale which, according to Australian Turf Club chairman Peter McGauran, would put $5 billion into the coffers of the racing industry.
“This proposal offers a one-off opportunity to make the ATC the most financially secure racing club in the world,” McGauran has said.
A spokesman for Sky Racing quashed industry speculation that those lobbying for the Rosehill sale had been influential in having the Waterhouse program blocked.
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“While the piece was planned to run on Monday, our programming team decided it would benefit from taking more time to ensure a stronger editorial rollout across all of our platforms and greater promotion of the piece,” he said.
Instead, the network planned to air the “exclusive interview about the life and times of legendary trainer Gai Waterhouse across our network and TAB social media platforms during the autumn carnival,” the spokesman said.
Tabcorp-owned Sky Racing, the exclusive rights holder for racing in the state since 2015, has close ties to Racing NSW, and the organisation’s involvement in the Rosehill saga has been a point of major consternation for those ATC members opposed to the sale.
Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys has maintained that he would only support the sale if the financial benefits stacked up, but the Herald has previously revealed he was involved in early briefings about the plan with government officials and was recorded as being “very supportive”.
Racing NSW paid corporate advisory firm Moelis Australia $250,000 to undertake due diligence on the sale, and internal government documents seen by the Herald show public servants were briefed on the findings of that report late last year.
Tommy Berry, with Gai Waterhouse (right) and his fiancee Sharnee Nisbit, celebrates after winning the Golden Slipper in 2015.Credit: Anthony Johnson
Waterhouse, an ambassador for the Victoria Racing Club, has been feuding with V’landys over a range of issues.
“You have a very powerful CEO in Mr V’landys, and he controls racing and he controls everyone in racing,” she told a NSW parliamentary inquiry into the Rosehill sale last July. She also said that race clubs had become completely beholden to Racing NSW.
The trainer is not the only vocal critic of the Rosehill sell-off.
The proposed sale of Rosehill has caused a major schism at senior levels within the ATC. Key board members including the chair and vice chair, McGauran and Tim Hale, have split over the sale.
Matters came to a head earlier in the week when it emerged that a call centre was contacting the ATC’s 11,000 members encouraging them to vote in favour of “a once-in-a-generation opportunity” to secure the ATC’s future with the sale of Rosehill.
Multiple ATC members have told the Herald they received calls on behalf of the ATC using the phrase “a once-in-a-generation opportunity.” One member said the caller said: “We really need as many votes as possible in order to secure the future of the club in NSW”.
Briar Spittle, an ATC member who has been involved in the Save Rosehill campaign, said she was contacted by someone identifying themselves as calling on behalf of the ATC.
“I said I wasn’t interested and they said ‘No, you really need to hear about it, it’s an amazing opportunity’,” she said.
Vice chairman Hale, an opponent of the current proposal to sell, was one of those who received a call. He and several other board members complained to management about the content of the calls.
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Hale said that it was important for members to make up their own minds.
The ATC confirmed it had hired a call centre to approach members, but rejected the characterisation of the call as a “push poll”.
“The accusation of push polling is rejected out of hand, at no time are members asked to vote yes or no. They are simply encouraged to vote,” a spokesman said.
But, after pushback from members, the spokesman said the ATC had instructed the call centre to drop the use of the term “once-in-a-generation”. He said the call centre was hired to increase voter turnout and provide information.
“ATC employed the call centre due to the significance of this vote and to ensure members had as much information as they needed and could have their questions answered,” he said.
The future of Rosehill will be decided at an extraordinary general meeting of ATC members at Randwick on April 3.
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