![\"ATC\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2233935675-1.jpg\")
The Australian Turf Club’s financial woes have been laid bare in a scathing Racing NSW bulletin issued to industry stakeholders with chair Saranne Cook as its signatory. (Photo by Jeremy Ng\/Getty Images)<\/p>\nThe brutal way in which Racing NSW chair Saranne Cooke exposed the failing business model of the Australian Turf Club poses broader questions about the future role of race clubs in Australian racing, writes Bren O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n
The Australian Turf Club’s financial woes have been laid bare in a scathing Racing NSW bulletin issued to industry stakeholders with chair Saranne Cook as its signatory. (Photo by Jeremy Ng\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Comment: The Australian Turf Club has spent much of the past two years with its dirty laundry on display to the world, but on Monday night it was Racing NSW chair Saranne Cooke putting the ATC\u2019s unmentionables in the public domain.<\/p>\n
Under the cover of addressing what Cooke said was \u201cmuch misinformation\u201d regarding Racing NSW\u2019s decision to issue a show-cause notice to the ATC as to why it shouldn\u2019t be put into administration, the chair set out a litany of concerns as to the future viability of the club.<\/p>\n
It was an extraordinary attack, front-running Racing NSW\u2019s own prosecution case for an administrator to be installed, while leaving the ATC board and executive on the back foot as it bids to run its own affairs.<\/p>\n
However, while the escalation was swift, the action itself should come as no surprise. Ever since Racing NSW won the race fields legal case, which delivered it an increasing and now dominant share of the proceeds of wagering in 2012, the club model, as it stands in NSW, has been doomed.<\/p>\n
Why now, arguably at the most important time of year for Sydney racing?<\/p>\n
This post is for our free members<\/p>\n
\n Thanks for your interest in The Straight. It looks like you are trying to access a free members article via an in-app browser on X, Facebook or LinkedIn.
\nFor the best experience, and instant access, sign on via the Social Sign In links below. You should only need to do this once.
\n <\/p>\n
If you wish to access or create an email-based account, please provide your email below. You will receive a link to click by email which will then open in your device\u2019s native browser.<\/p>\n
One moment…<\/p>\n
Please check your email to confirm your subscription!<\/p>\n
Something went wrong. Please try again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The brutal way in which Racing NSW chair Saranne Cooke exposed the failing business model of the Australian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-154627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}