![\"Chris](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ee71cb37d4c9fcd432bc0a75a0130cfa154694ad.png\")
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February 11, 2026 \u2014 5:46pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n Save this article for later<\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n Got it<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Sports administrator Peter V\u2019landys has launched legal action after questions were raised about whether his leadership of rugby league had distracted him from running the state\u2019s $3.3 billion horse racing industry.<\/p>\n The long-time Racing NSW chief executive and chairman of the Australian Rugby League Commission filed defamation proceedings against racing news website The Thoroughbred Report and its managing director, Vicky Leonard, with the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday.<\/p>\n At issue is an article posted by the site in November which questioned whether it was time for change after V\u2019landys\u2019 two decades in charge of racing and whether the sport should impose term limits on CEOs.<\/p>\n It credited him with delivering the sport rivers of gold via betting-related taxes and other reforms, but he has accused the site of suggesting his long tenure had since become a liability for racing.<\/p>\n V\u2019landys has also claimed the story contained misinformation about the state of the racing industry under his watch and that it wrongly implied that he could not give enough attention to racing because of his role as head of the ARL Commission, which controls the National Rugby League.<\/p>\n The new court action puts V\u2019landys on a legal war footing on two fronts, personally and as CEO of Racing NSW, whose bitter dispute with the Australian Turf Club will be heard over two days in the Supreme Court next week.<\/a><\/p>\n The hearing will effectively decide who has command of the country\u2019s biggest race club, which operates Royal Randwick racecourse and owns three other metropolitan racetracks in Sydney, and whose board members are fighting a move by Racing NSW to dump them and install an administrator.<\/p>\n The Thoroughbred Report, which mainly publishes bloodstock news, was one of three Australian racing websites to receive legal letters late last year over their coverage of the V\u2019landys-led industry regulator and commercial juggernaut.<\/p>\n Leonard, who founded the site and co-owns it with US-based Irishman Gary King, said she and her organisation would be fighting the claims in court.<\/p>\n \u201cOur article was a measured, data-driven analysis of CEO tenure \u2013 it was not defamatory, and we will be defending this claim vigorously. In fact, we believe Mr V\u2019landys has defamed me personally, and we have issued our own concerns notice in response,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cUsing a Supreme Court writ in response to independent media asking uncomfortable questions is a clear failure of governance. It is textbook \u2018chilling effect\u2019 \u2013 the exact behaviour the NSW parliament formally cautioned Mr V\u2019landys against only months ago.\u201d<\/p>\n Leonard was referring to report released by NSW parliament\u2019s privileges committee in October which raised \u201cserious concerns\u201d that Racing NSW engaged in conduct that may have deterred potential witnesses<\/a> from coming forward to the inquiry into the proposed sale of Rosehill Gardens racecourse.<\/p>\n The report did not make a specific finding about V\u2019landys, who denied that Racing NSW had attempted to interfere with witnesses.<\/p>\n V\u2019landys declined to comment on Wednesday but in December alleged Leonard\u2019s marketing consultancy, Kick Collective, had benefited financially from cash raised for National Thoroughbred Week, a nationwide project Leonard launched last year to raise awareness about the positives of racing in which trainers such as Gai Waterhouse and Chris Waller opened up their stables.<\/p>\n Invoices showed Kick Collective had billed National Thoroughbred Week $55,558 last August for setting up a website, plus advertising, social media and other services, but Leonard denied the money was redirected for her personal gain, refuting what she called \u201cshockingly damaging\u201d allegations.<\/p>\n She said she had put in 300 hours of her own work without charge and her business had provided services at a discounted rate because there was not enough sponsorship funding to pay another company.<\/p>\n V\u2019landys has engaged defamation specialists Mark O\u2019Brien Legal but has not said whether he or Racing NSW is footing the bill. He told The Australian Financial Review in December that \u201cthe people who will be paying for it will be them\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n State laws under which Racing NSW has wide-reaching powers are the subject of a review by former health minister Brad Hazzard, and the article on The Thoroughbred Report included a link to a government website where submissions to the review could be made.<\/p>\n V\u2019landys previously sued the ABC over a 2019 episode of 7.30 that aired graphic footage of the mistreatment and slaughter of retired racehorses.<\/p>\n Related Article He was unsuccessful in demonstrating that the program had defamed him and also failed to overturn the decision on appeal, although the Federal Court ruled he had been treated \u201cvery shabbily\u201d by the national broadcaster<\/a>.<\/p>\n As well as being CEO and a board member of Racing NSW, since 2019 V\u2019landys has also been the most powerful figure in rugby league in Australia as head of the ARL Commission.<\/p>\n His case against The Thoroughbred Report is listed to be heard in court for the first time on March 27.<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>. <\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Peter](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/d1dad4008f17ea8e7aa5b6b968c8b7e227de28f1.jpeg\")
Peter V\u2019landys is a powerful figure in two of Australia\u2019s major sports.Getty<\/p>\n![\"V\u2019landys](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/3d106286a8d1fb26e0ea20c5a2738a620a21e3e1.jpeg\")
V\u2019landys is suing Vicky Leonard (right), co-founder of The Thoroughbred Report.Monique Westermann<\/p>\n![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770822392_52_4ffecb4485365f84b626599ded281210b6151605b1e14c6a45b17aa604a15090.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Chris](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769322851_66_ee71cb37d4c9fcd432bc0a75a0130cfa154694ad.png\")
Chris Barrett<\/a> is an investigative reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He is a former South-East Asia correspondent, and chief sports reporter.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"February 11, 2026 \u2014 5:46pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-473054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}