Racing Victoria’s new leader recognises importance of state’s breeding industry
Former Cricket NSW boss Jones acknowledges learning process as regulator’s chief executive on visit to stud farms
Andrew Jones has barely had time to put his feet under the chief executive’s desk at Racing Victoria, but the experienced former cricket administrator is wasting no time in ensuring he gets up to speed with the complexities of the state’s large-scale thoroughbred breeding industry.
On Friday, Jones’s presence at the stallion parade of Rosemont Stud was immediately noticeable as he mingled with principals Nigel Austin and Anthony Mithen, as well as breeders, owners, trainers and jockeys who were at the prominent farm in Geelong, near Victoria’s surf coast, to cast their eyes over the four-strong roster headlined by Shamus Award (Snitzel).
Appointed in March as the successor to Giles Thompson at RV, Jones officially took over the leadership role on July 11 and made the most of the opportunity to visit Rosemont Stud, which is also one of Victoria’s largest racehorse owners, during its open day.
“It is a learning process for me and it’s absolutely fascinating to literally learn how the horses are bred and obviously sold, trained and raced,” Jones told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“There’s a real community here, of course, and it’s a very, very interesting business. There’s a lot of people spending a lot of time and money and attention trying to breed a champion.”
Jones acted as interim chief executive of RV’s broadcast arm Racing.com for a time, and he begins his role as the racing body’s chief executive after an unprecedented surge in wagering turnover and record prices being paid for Australian bloodstock.
“The mood in racing is very good, as it probably should be, as there’s never been a better time to own a horse, which means there’s never been a better time to breed a horse,” he said.
“Because the industry across Victoria has done such a good job over the past three years through Covid, building on a lot of history of hard work and tradition, to generate record revenue, record prize-money and record distribution to owners, that naturally flows back upstream into the breeding industry as well.
“As I said to someone else, there’s never been a better spring to have a fast horse.”
Jones is well aware of the importance of the Vobis scheme – jointly funded by the state government, breeders and stallion owners and Racing Victoria – which rewards breeders, owners and trainers of Victorian-bred horses and, in particular, those bred to the state’s stallions.
Just as the Rosemont Stud parade was concluding, the first of 250 $30,000 Vobis Sires Boost vouchers to be won this racing season was won by the Highgrove Stud-bred and owned Elegant Diva (Written Tycoon), a Peter Moody-trained three-year-old filly who was victorious over 1230 metres at Geelong on what was her first start.
The vouchers can be used towards the cost of buying a Vobis-eligible yearling or towards the cost of a Vobis-eligible stallion’s service fee.
“At a very high level, obviously thoroughbred racing is a massive employer in Victoria, not just at Racing Victoria, but across the whole ecosystem,” Jones said.
“There’s 25,000-plus FTEs (full-time equivalent employees) and over $3 billion of economic value-add to the state each year and that starts with the breeding industry, that’s where the industry begins.
“We obviously want a vibrant breeding industry in Victoria and Vobis is a key part of that to reward Victorian breeders (and owners) for breeding and racing in this state.”
Thoroughbred Breeders Victoria (TBV) president James O’Brien was pleased to see Jones acknowledging the sector by his appearance at Rosemont Stud last week.
“We are two separate industries, one is a primary producer and one is entertainment and sport, but we do depend on each other,” O’Brien said.
Racing Victoria in June increased prize-money for the current season, taking the total pool beyond $300 million, as well as implementing major hikes for feature races and there has been further enhancements since then.
“We think prize-money is sustainable, which is why we’ve invested in it,” Jones said.
“We are seeing wagering tapering a little bit, which is only natural post-Covid as people are out of their houses and travelling again and their discretionary spend is going to a wider range of things than it was during lockdown, but we think the medium-term prospects for the industry are very strong.
“However, we won’t have the explosive growth this year that we’ve had the last couple of years because it’ll be a very hard act to follow.”
Jones was a Cricket NSW chief executive and most recently held the same role in an interim capacity at Netball Australia prior to the Sydneysider relocating to Melbourne for the RV position.
Jones was also appointed as the interim chief executive of Racing.com, RV’s broadcast arm, and on the board of the industry’s overarching Victorian Thoroughbred Integrated Media business. Racing is therefore not completely foreign to him, but he has admitted he’s come from outside what can often be an insular industry.
He said: “I’ll try and get to another one (Victorian stallion parade) if I can. It’d be fun to get to all of them but there’s probably a few other mouths to feed back at the office, but it was a very, very enjoyable day at Rosemont.”
Representatives from Australia’s thoroughbred auction houses, Inglis and Magic Millions, were also at the Rosemont and Yulong stallion parades at the weekend as was TBV’s new executive officer Kellie Cook.