Victorian Thoroughbred Racehorse Owners (TROA) Chairman, Jonathan Munz , claimed a big win for Racing with the forced departure of embattled Racing Victoria CEO , Andrew Jones .
There had been widespread dissatisfaction and lack of confidence from industry participants and race clubs in Jones and the Racing Victoria (RVL) board , resulting in a campaign led by Munz for the termination of Jones and a major refresh of the board.
Munz strongly criticised Jones and the board for their insufficient racing experience and knowledge and lack of commercial expertise. A series of gaffes and own goals in relation to programming and prize money and the widely held view that Jones and RV were arrogant and failing to consult with industry participants and race clubs led to the inevitable departure of Jones and the acceleration of board changes, with three new RVL directors to be appointed in the next few weeks.
Munz said : “It is ridiculous that this has taken so long to achieve . Jones and his team were completely out of their depth and apart from fundamental management errors , were seen as pushing a misconceived radical strategy parading as “innovation” .
"They were trying to change things that did not need changing , while ignoring and getting the basics wrong . This alarmed industry investors and participants and caused controversy .
"Unfortunately, the board enabled Jones for way too long and did not listen to pleas for change from investors, race clubs and participants. Indeed , it has been observed that in many ways the RVL board members were more culpable than Jones. They should have heeded advice from the industry to sack him almost a year ago.
"It is also an insult to our intelligence for RVL to be thanking Jones and praising him for his past work on his departure, when he clearly did a terrible job and was pressured to leave. That poor judgement is a clear indicator of why major board changes are necessary.
"Unfortunately , the delay in refreshing the board for almost 12 months created a power vacuum which has been bad for the industry.However, pressure makes diamonds and hopefully the new board and CEO will end the dysfunction, bring the industry together and return us to competence and normality.”
