Victoria Racing Club (VRC) members have voted for the status quo, returning three members to the board at Tuesday’s annual general meeting (AGM), despite the custodian of Flemington racecourse being mired in debt.
Neil Werrett, Sophie O’Kane and Michael Ramsden were all re-elected for another term as directors, with fellow candidates Stephen Hewitt, Paula Sullivan and John Wise failing to secure enough votes to join the VRC board.
The VRC, under new CEO Kylie Rogers, is undergoing a major restructure in order to turn around its finances after it lost A$24.2 million in 2023-24, taking its losses since 2020 to A$87 million.
However, the results of the vote suggests that members have faith in the board and executive to right the financial ship after a positive Flemington spring carnival which saw 285 675 attend the four race meetings, an increase of eight per cent year-on-year.
Earlier this month, Rogers axed up to 40 jobs, about 15 per cent of the VRC’s workforce of 235, as she works to slash costs associated with running more than 20 race meetings at Flemington each season.
O’Kane, a business development and sales director at JLL Technologies, first joined the VRC board in 2015, Terrain Capital managing director Ramsden has been a director since 2012 and Galileo Group CEO and major thoroughbred industry investor Werrett was first elected in 2018.
Neil Wilson remains VRC chair.
“The VRC Board of Directors has a clear focus to serve its members and continue to realise the Club’s vision of being a leader in world-class racing, and experiences,” Wilson said.
“There were several highlights last season including record membership of more than 34 000 members, increased attendance over the 2023 Melbourne Cup Carnival, a record economic return for Victoria from the four-days of Cup Week and a significant amount of money raised for the community.
“The Club continued to invest in the 2024 Melbourne Cup Carnival and across a range of initiatives with the knowledge that there were significant positive commercial outcomes to be announced in the coming months and we are now very well placed to create and deliver on the aspirations of the club well into the future.”
“Our strategy remains committed to ensuring we put our members, and the horse, at the heart of everything we do, and we enter 2025 with a focus on building on the strategic momentum from a successful 2024 Melbourne Cup Carnival and building a sustainable and strong financial future,” Rogers said.
“The recent organisational redesign was difficult but necessary to ensure we have the right team the right operating model to deliver new opportunity and growth for our members, partners and wider racing industry.”
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