Betsy is publishing its top ten power lists for both NSW and Victoria, detailing the key powerbrokers in racing and their key relationships.
Some on these lists will be household names – there are others that punters will have never heard of.
But they are all crucial players in an industry worth billions of dollars.
The list is not designed to highlight those in positions of power or roles that give them prominence, it’s created to have a look at those who actually have an impact, with the ability to shape crucial decisions on how racing in Australia is run, and crucially, how punters are treated as a result.
5. Neil Wilson
As Melbourne Racing Club chairman John Kanga rose to prominence, he did it away from the comfort of committee rooms that wine and dine Melbourne’s rich and powerful. But the Victorian Racing Club is another beast.
That’s not an insult – they just move differently at Flemington.
Built on prestige, history and connections, the VRC has always prided itself on being the biggest, the best and untouchable. But the times are a-changing and the club finds itself in a curious moment in its proud and rich history.
We wrote this week that John Kanga is the most powerful man in club land. That remains true.
Neil Wilson, the club chairman, inclusion ahead of him in Betsy’s power list reflects the reach of the VRC – Australia’s biggest racing club that holds the largest Carnival.
The Melbourne Cup carnival is a huge money turner for not only the VRC and Racing Victoria [through punters], but also Melbourne as a whole.
Studies have been done talking about the economic impact of the carnival for Victoria [the latest claimed it was $1 billion for the week – that’s a fair bit of Chandon and chicken sangas]. That automatically brings clout.
Wilson always presents himself in immaculate suits and ties, it is the VRC after all. Even during the darkest days of lockdowns when Wilson appeared on the screens of racing.com from home, he looked like he just walked out of a Myer catalogue.
Wilson has now been at the VRC since 2012, firstly on the board then CEO between 2018 and 2020, then chairman.
Wilson has seen the best and worst of running the club. The rivers of gold that have kept the club afloat had slowed to a trickle for a few years.
The club blames Covid and a bit of bad luck.
Club critics, and there are a few, say it’s more down to largesse and a business model that is not sustainable.
The truth? Probably a bit of both. The club relies on events to make a buck and when crowds dropped slightly before Covid, it hurt, but not as much as lockdowns that essentially stripped the VRC of even letting in staff, let alone punters, for a number of big days.
That’s not to say the club’s image at times hasn’t needed massaging. Trips to Royal Ascot [who can forget the images of Wilson near Prince Charles in 2024], costs associated with lavish lunches, dinners, and Cup tours around the world that come with expensive events plus the bad optics such as serving Penfolds during races as the club tries to save dollars looks bad, even if it’s sponsored and low cost.
We could go on around smaller examples of what appears largesse than many in racing circles obsess over.
Wilson and his highly regarded CEO Kylie Rogers now have their messaging down however – we’ve got a plan, we know we need to change and things will be ok.
The club was reportedly around $60-70 million in debt, including owing $10 million to Racing Victoria.
RV, at times, have used that money owed as leverage during tense battles with the club.
Wilson and the club played a master hand when it came to battles with RV during the Andrew Jones era [Jones was nearly rolled by a motion to spill the board, which would have seen most of the executive speared too].
Privately, the VRC were seen as big supporters of the move to rid of Jones. They took issue with a number of RV directives. The VRC eventually decided to abstain from the vote on the board to the amusement of many.
When Jones gave a speech that included not wearing ties to the races, many at the VRC were outraged. Wearing a tie is a club rule for members.
Such was the bizarre and often ludicrous politics of racing at the time, if you didn’t wear a tie to a race day you were seen as team Jones. Chuck on a Windsor knot on and you weren’t.
The club hated, like many others, the idea put forward by Jones and the polarising Ben Amarfio of a racing teams league, including the mad idea of jockeys wearing earpieces during the race. They also strongly disagreed with Amarfio’s belief that RV should market races, not the clubs.
The club, however, kept its head down and let others do the public whacking of RV.
Which is funny in someways considering Wilson loves a media opportunity. He’s front and centre at club announcements, media events and even carrying the Melbourne Cup to the mounting yard on racing’s biggest day [again, looking immaculate!]. He’s a slick media performer.
Ten races? The club hated it, but RV largely ignored their pleas for fewer races, but were forced to relent during winter months citing concerns about wet tracks.
[As an aside, the joke at times is that the most powerful man at the VRC is actually the club’s friendly and highly respected track manager, Liam O’Keeffe, who is protective over his immaculate racing surface and hates the idea of anything changing that. I had one administrator tell me once they had to convince O’Keeffe of the need for ten races!]
The club fought with Jones on prize money, arguing their historic races needed cash injections.
The club initially refused to join the industry on making jumpouts part of a wider solution for the benefit of punters. Eventually they came around with a bit of strong-arming.
When Jones and a few of his executive were punted [including my business partner Matt Welsh, sorry Matt] the relationship between headquarters and RV was back on track.
The Melbourne Cup is now worth $10 million after years of campaigning and the Cup carnival is back in full swing.
Wilson and his racing manager Leigh Jordon have quietly tackled issues and won.
The club has innovated too. The Champions Day [which once was Stakes Day] is now one of the best day’s racing anywhere.
It has the potential to keep growing with the right strategic investment and prize money increases.
The club, too, are focusing their attention on other non-race day events – music acts, dance festivals, conferences, events and general entertainment [not to mention smartly charging punters $20 to park during the Melbourne Show]. They could probably trade their way out of debt in a few weeks if they kept their ripping rooftop bar open to a reasonable time on raceday for thirsty punters.
The club’s reach into State Government has traditionally been strong [no doubt helped by hiring former Racing Minister Martin Pakula as an advisor]. Wilson is a master networker and political operative.
Pakula helped the club with its masterplan too which will need investment and government support.
Back in the boardroom however, Wilson plays the high-end of Melbourne as well as anyone, forming smart relationships that will serve the club.
His board has been relatively settled and compliant.
Wilson oversaw a new broadcast deal for the Cup that made punters and Racing Victoria irate, giving it to TAB and Channel Nine instead of Channel Seven, who show racing for the other 51 weeks of the year [and could have shown the Cup carnival alongside Sydney’s races, with politics aside is a win for punters and the sport].
Apparently the financials of the deals were similar, but Nine’s commitment to integrating the VRC’s sponsors got the deal done.
Rumours TAB now believe the VRC got the better end of the deal won’t go away [and should serve as a compliment to Wilson]. But the broadcast deal is the crux of what drives the haters of the VRC – the club acts, they claim, only in what’s in the best interests of the club.
The VRC’s response privately has been without our success, racing loses.
Much of the work is now left to Rogers who was Wilson’s captains pick straight from the AFL.
Tough, smart and savvy, even the club’s detractors say it’s a good hire. She was forced to clean out her executive ranks and cut headcount in a bid to start turning the finances around.
The club is now eyeing off developments of freehold land and are confident of trading their way out of debt. Whether their bank and RV share their optimism remains to be seen. Membership is still expensive but the club claims numbers are strong.
They’ve also followed Kanga and attempted to cut costs and improve quality of booze and food.
The VRC successfully bid millions to host the Cox Plate in 2026 [apparently even floating the idea of changing the date – better for O’Keeffe’s track perhaps] in what will be an incredible two weeks at Flemington alongside their Cup carnival.
Speculation continues that Wilson will wind back his VRC commitments to give Rogers clean air in her bid to return the club to its financial glories.
A meeting to chat mergers with Kanga and racing power broker Jonathan Munz is a clear indication where the two clubs futures may lie.
The idea makes sense – the MRC has the cash, the VRC has the prestige, power and big races. But when details of the meeting leaked to The Age, the VRC was furious.
When the source of those leaks was later identified, relationships improved and despite denials the merger talks are done, many aren’t convinced. RV is likely to dangle significant incentives if the clubs join forces.
Whether Wilson sticks around or not, the power of the VRC remains and if the cash starts flowing again as Wilson and Rogers promise, they’ll be right back up the pecking order.
