![\"Tim](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/WhatsApp_Image_2025-10-20_at_11.55.27_AM.jpeg\")
ATC chair Tim Hale and Racing NSW chair Saranne Cooke at The Everest. (Photo: Getty Images)<\/p>\nATC chair Tim Hale and Racing NSW chair Saranne Cooke at The Everest. (Photo: Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The Australian Turf Club has called on a range of experts to help detail to Racing NSW why it shouldn\u2019t be placed into administration at a show-cause hearing on Friday.<\/p>\n
A week after the ATC\u2019s Randwick racecourse hosted a wildly successful Everest race meeting, Sydney\u2019s sole thoroughbred racing club will front the state\u2019s regulator to answer solvency and governance concerns held by Racing NSW.<\/p>\n
Dr Saranne Cooke, the Racing NSW chair, explicitly outlined those ATC concerns in an industry-wide bulletin issued last month in which she stated she held \u201csignificant doubts about its ability to survive\u201d.<\/p>\n
As the ATC grappled to retain its independence, Racing NSW agreed to push the hearing back by three weeks, allowing the club to piece together its case.<\/p>\n
The Straight understands that the ATC has engaged insolvency agency KordaMentha and governance specialists to assist in responding to the show-cause notice.<\/p>\n
With that advice, the final documents and arguments have been prepared by a firm of solicitors on behalf of the ATC ahead of its day of reckoning.<\/p>\n
It is also believed that Racing NSW officials have been in dialogue with the ATC board and executive in recent weeks, meetings which could be deemed as conciliatory.<\/p>\n
Depending on the outcome of Friday\u2019s hearing, the ATC board of chair Tim Hale and deputy Caroline Searcy and fellow directors David McGrath and Annette English could be sacked and an administrator put in control of the organisation.<\/p>\n
Alternatively, the board could remain in place with an administrator overseeing the management of the club or, thirdly, there won\u2019t be any intervention from Racing NSW with the ATC\u2019s submissions seen favourably by the regulator.<\/p>\n
Steve McMahon has been the ATC\u2019s acting chief executive after the board removed Matt Galanos from the position in September.<\/p>\n
Two board members, Ben Bayot and Natalie Hewson, resigned days later, leading to Racing NSW calling Hale and Searcy to a meeting and issuing them with a show-cause notice.<\/p>\n
It followed more than 18 months of unrest and industry infighting caused by the failed $5 billion sale of Rosehill racecourse, a proposal led by then ATC chair Peter McGauran who fell on his sword in July after the majority of members voted against the plan.<\/p>\n
Sentiment over the past week is that the ATC is becoming increasingly confident that it can successfully defend the show-cause notice despite the pessimism expressed at a racing event on the eve of The Everest last Friday.<\/p>\n
At Double Bay\u2019s Royal Oak Hotel, the venue for an Everest Calcutta, a wide spectrum of racing figures were in attendance and the ATC\u2019s predicament was never far from the topic of conversation at the popular eastern suburbs watering hole.<\/p>\n
Their cynicism was evident, but once on course at Randwick last Saturday, among the more than 50,000 crowd who witnessed Ka Ying Rising become the first international horse to win the $20 million Everest, there was a growing cause for optimism, particularly in Randwick\u2019s Grand Ballroom where many industry heavyweights had gathered.<\/p>\n
That confidence, in part, was because of the ATC board\u2019s \u201cprofessional approach\u201d to tackling the issue.<\/p>\n
In an update to members issued on October 11, ATC chair Hale said the ATC was financially stable and dismissed the governance concerns expressed by Racing NSW.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur most recent audited accounts show millions of dollars in net assets, supported by substantial property holdings, potentially worth billions, which continue to appreciate,\u201d Hale wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur cash reserves at the end of FY25 stand at $22 million, up from $12 million last year. This position has further improved in recent weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThose improvements reflect careful management and stronger commercial performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Four NSW race clubs have previously been ordered to show-cause to Racing NSW \u2013 Hawkesbury, Wyong, Tamworth and Queanbeyan \u2013 with the quartet all placed into administration as a result of the hearings.<\/p>\n
Hawkesbury and Queanbeyan race clubs are still under the control of a Racing NSW-appointed administrator, but Tamworth and Wyong are back under the management of a board and chief executive.<\/p>\n
Friday promises to be a definitive day for the ATC and for racing in NSW more generally.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As for a market, even-money each of two might be the best guide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATC chair Tim Hale and Racing NSW chair Saranne Cooke at The Everest. (Photo: Getty Images) The Australian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-219452","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\/219452","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=219452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}