Waterhouse calls for unity ahead of crucial Asian Pattern Committee meeting
Racing legend Gai Waterhouse has made an impassioned call for Australia’s black type crisis to be resolved in what looms as a seminal week for the issue, as Asian racing officials prepare to discuss it at a critical meeting.
With industry participants warning that Australia could be demoted from Part I of the international thoroughbred “Blue Book”, or that the Asian Racing Federation (ARF) could, at least temporarily, oversee the country’s black type pattern, Waterhouse said national officials should “put their differences aside” and reinstitute a black type committee.
It comes as the ARF’s Asian Pattern Committee (APC) prepares to meet in Hong Kong on Friday, when the Australian situation will be discussed – with the potential for serious ramifications for the country if it does not satisfy the ARF’s requirements.
The ARF wrote to Racing Australia (RA) in October asking it to put its house in order in regard to black type.
In a letter which ANZ News has seen, the federation reported its executive council, at its meeting in Paris on October 3, discussed its “long-standing concerns” about “quality control for black-type races in Australia”.
Noting Australia had not had a functioning black type committee “possibly since as far back as 2017/18”, the letter said Australia’s last race downgrade had occurred in 2012, since which time it had had 79 races upgraded, including seven to Group 1.
The letter said the APC “recommended that it not consider applications from Australia, nor recognise changes in race status of which Racing Australia gives notice” until RA adopted two measures.
It said the first was to institute new black type guidelines “in a form compliant with the APC Ground Rules”. The second was that a “national pattern committee, or equivalent body overseeing black type quality control, is operational”.
The ARF set a deadline of November 24 for RA to send it a written response. ANZ News understands RA gained an extension on that deadline, to last Friday, December 5. It remains unclear whether RA met that extended deadline. Racing Australia did not respond to ANZ News’ requests for comment before publication.
Calls on Monday by ANZ to RA chief executive Paul Eriksson and chairman Rob Rorrison seeking clarity on that question were not returned.
Matt Orr, a member of the ARF’s secretariat, did return ANZ’s call on Monday. When asked if the ARF had received a written response from RA by Friday’s deadline, he said: “No comment.”
Last Friday’s deadline coincided with an RA board meeting. It also remains unclear whether the RA board could reach any consensus regarding a reply to the ARF.
As Friday’s Hong Kong meeting looms, Hall of Fame trainer Waterhouse said she was “deeply worried” by the possibility Australia could be demoted to Part II of the Blue Book if it did not satisfy the ARF’s concerns.
She said the interstate rivalries which she believed had contributed to the devolution of Australia’s pattern committee should “be put aside for the good of the country”.
“State politics, personal politics – whatever you want to call it, they have to move on,” Waterhouse told ANZ News.
“What we’ve got is such a major problem. They’ve got to put their differences aside and move on.
“They’re being like little boys in the schoolhouse, and it’s no good. It’s such a worry.
“Personal politics will bring down Australian racing. It’ll bring down the system, the system on which we base everything – our breeding industry and much more.”
She added: “How the devil can they make any decision if they haven’t got a black type committee? That in itself shows how ludicrous the whole situation is.
“They have to get a committee that can work like it used to work and go back to doing that.
“How can you make these decisions without having a committee that’s guiding things for the best interest of the whole of Australia?”
The idea of the ARF demoting a jurisdiction such as Australia to Part II of the Blue Book is considered fanciful by some. Waterhouse does not agree.
“Of course they’ll demote us. And why wouldn’t they?” she said. “We can’t even manage our own backyard at present.
“It’s so sad for our industry. Who’s steering the ship for God’s sake?
“They [the ARF] must think of us as the most parochial country in the world. And that’s exactly how we’re showing ourselves to be – totally parochial.”
Waterhouse stressed that these were her views as an industry participant observing the current dispute, rather than any prediction about what the ARF will ultimately do.
Asked about the prospect of the ARF stepping in to govern Australia’s black type pattern, Waterhouse said: “That’d be a very good idea. Someone from outside looking in. They would be objective.
“That’s what we lack – we cannot be objective at present. We can only be parochial. And while we’re parochial, with each state looking after its own interests, then we’ll never go forward.
“So if we’re not capable of doing that, which obviously they’re not, they should have the ARF come in and take over, because they would be totally objective, and they’ll probably do a much better job.”
Among developments at RA’s board meeting last Friday, the fate of a proposal put to RA by Thoroughbred Breeders Australia (TBA) and AusHorse to let them form and run a pattern committee remains unknown.
“We put a proposal in for RA to agree for us to form a committee to update the pattern,” said a representative from one of the bodies, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “This is so important to us breeders.”
Officials from TBA and AusHorse met on Monday to plan further steps and responses.
The current impasse continues the lengthy saga regarding governance of the black type pattern in Australia in recent years.
While the ARF’s formal letter was directed at RA as the national governing body for black type, a suite of race upgrades in NSW has become the most visible flashpoint in the wider governance dispute.
It comes after an initial batch of 17 NSW races – which later grew to 18 – were listed as upgraded to as high as Group 2 by RA and RNSW, despite the fact there has not been a “properly functioning black-type quality control system in Australia for many years”, according to the ARF letter.
Most of those races have now been run twice while advertised under their NSW upgrades, despite the APC not recognising the status changes of at least the first 17 under its ground rules. This non-recognition is due to the absence of an Australian black type committee which complies with the APC’s ground rules.
In October last year, RA announced it had implemented a new system, saying “the Australian Pattern has been reviewed to form the new ‘Australian Black Type Guidelines’”.
Based mainly on race ratings, it would replace the black type pattern committee system which had been in place since the late 1970s, taking “a modern approach” to Australia’s unique racing environment, whilst also recognising, under the country’s federated system of states, any “potential implications from an Australian competition law perspective”.
Opponents said the new system lacked the discretionary powers fundamental to black type committees around the world.
Some also said if the old black type committee had contravened competition laws, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) would have taken action against it previously.
“Separately, there’s also a public benefit exemption the ACCC can give,” one senior breeder, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told ANZ News. “They can give you a waiver for public benefit, and I believe this particular issue would qualify.”
In any event, the “Black Type Guidelines” have not met the approval of the ARF’s executive council.
In its letter to RA, it said its executive council felt “there has not been a properly functioning black type quality control system in Australia for many years, possibly since as far back as 2017/18”.
Listing seven races it believed were eligible for downgrades – including the Sydney Cup (Gr 1, 3200m), The Metropolitan (Gr 1, 2400m) and the WATC Railway Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) – the ARF warned of possible ramifications failing a satisfactory response from RA.
The APC may move to “restore effective black type quality control for Australian races” by not considering any of RA’s applications on gradings and may begin making decisions on Australian Group status itself, the letter stated, adding those decisions would “require the approval of the majority of the APC, with RA not being permitted to vote”.
The letter also said Australia could be demoted to Part II of the Blue Book, if RA did not satisfactorily address the ARF’s concerns and requests.
Demotion to Part II of the International Cataloguing Standards Blue Book – run by the International Grading and Race Planning Advisory Committee (IRPAC) – would have significant consequences for the Australian racing and breeding industry.
The letter added: “RA may be required to show cause as to why the APC should not recommend to the IRPAC, that it endorse, and the Society of International Thoroughbred Auctioneers, that it ratify, that Australia be demoted from Part I of the Blue Book until such time as it has in place a black type system which addresses the concerns set out above.”
Such a scenario would put Australia on a par with jurisdictions such as Malaysia, India, Panama and Puerto Rico in that all its black type races would be recognised globally as merely “Listed”.
Among many ramifications, industry stakeholders fear this would weaken the value of Australian stock as foreign investors lose confidence in Australian racing, while also dissuading northern hemisphere stud farms from shuttling stallions to the country. Its ramifications would also be felt in Europe, where Australian buyers purchase vast amounts of breeding and racing stock.
Meanwhile, a new organisation calling for reform of the NSW thoroughbred industry is “hopeful” change will arise from the state government’s review of the NSW Thoroughbred Racing Act.
Monday marked the closing date for submissions to the review, which is being conducted by former health minister Brad Hazzard, and which was one of five recommendations stemming from the parliamentary inquiry into the proposed sale of Rosehill.
The Racing Reform Group NSW (RRG), launched last month, lodged a submission before Monday’s 5pm deadline which its secretary Brian Nutt described as “quite lengthy and very detailed”.
Among its contents is a call for the Hazzard review’s terms of reference to be broadened. Under the current terms, two critical areas have been excluded: the funding model of racing in the state and the relationship between Racing NSW and the state government.
Nutt told ANZ the RRG’s submission discusses those two areas and asks the Hazzard inquiry to recommend the review’s terms of reference be expanded to cover both.
“We, the members of the [RRG] steering group, all had quite a bit of input into the submission,” Nutt told ANZ. “It’s a very good submission, I believe. It covers most of the issues, such as governance, funding, et cetera.”
Nutt said he was “hopeful” both that the review’s terms of reference would be duly expanded, and that the review may lead to meaningful change in the way racing is run in NSW.
“Mr Hazzard has met with at least 20 groups of industry participants, including our group, so I think he is certainly doing his homework,” Nutt said. “We commend him, and we think he’s doing a very good job, from what we’ve seen.”
Others on the RRG’s steering group include prominent owner Jason Abrahams, lawyer and owner David Walter, Helen Sinclair, who has decades of experience in race club management across the state, Yarraman Park’s Arthur Mitchell, former Australian Turf Club and Australian Jockey Club director Julia Ritchie and bloodstock agent Will Johnson.
This article is based on correspondence and information available to ANZ News at the time of publication and is intended to report on the current debate about black type governance rather than to reach any concluded view about the conduct of any individual or organisation.