THE bitter dispute involving the Australian Jockey Club and its trainers at Randwick and Warwick Farm reached a new low last Friday. The parties squared off again at the Sydney offices of Racing NSW with its chief executive, Peter V'Landys, the mediator. It was a hostile gathering.
A wedge has been driven between the parties. The prospect of trainers signing new leases for dilapidated stables, paying increased box rentals and track fees is a long way off. As one tenant declared at Rosehill on Saturday: "Who wants to sign a lease for stables that are 60 years old?"
It would seem the AJC's attitude is take it or leave. Court action was threatened on Friday, further inflaming the trainers. No doubt the barbed wire will be rolled out around stables at Randwick. Enter at your own risk. An AJC executive-free zone.
The AJC even went to Racing NSW chief steward Ray Murrihy. If the AJC locked trainers out, would stewards support the move and take action against licensed persons? "Stewards will not get involved in industrial action," was the only comment from Murrihy at the weekend.
So who is going to pay to fix crumbling stable blocks? The AJC or trainers? The AJC is heading down the commercial path. It is a business. It is about making money. A shopping mall, a club with pokies and a gym are all earmarked for Randwick.
"They'd better be careful," one wag said at Rosehill. "They might not have any horses left. Who wants to go into a business that loses money?"
That is the nature of horse racing. How many owners make a profit? And they will be paying for increased fees. How can the trainers absorb them? Sure, the AJC will say it subsidises training to the tune of $5 million a year. A figure that has risen dramatically since the new team took over.
Anyway, the AJC has always done it. When it was in charge of racing across the state, it no doubt took it off the top of the financial handout. When it was in charge, property was acquired at both Randwick and Warwick Farm. Lots of property paid for with racing industry funds, no doubt.
It was all about looking after the future. When the AJC lost control, it kept all the assets - stables that are falling down. In the commercial age, the AJC brought in a turf company to do all its track maintenance. Sacked a number of its staff that did the job. It was all about the bottom line.
Complaints from trainers about things that need to be fixed become a blame game. The turf mob only looks after grass and dirt, not running rails that have fallen down. Fences that need to be mended. Gates that need attention.
Whose department is it?
And when the commercial arrangement with the turf mob ends, what is the AJC going to do? Lack of competition in this department suggests the turf mob will hold the AJC to ransom. The mail is the polo fields out at Warwick Farm are now off limits to horses.
Trainers have had a gutful. Talk that a resolution is close may be well off the mark. When stables have been upgraded to a certain standard, they may sign the new leases. But who is going to pay?
It could be another win for the lawyers.
cyoung@access.fairfax.com.au
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff
Twitter