Peter V'landys

Equine influenza outbreak

In mid-2007 the racing industry was brought to a standstill as a result of an outbreak of equine influenza. New South Wales was the worst affected state with all racing cancelled and the movement of all horses prohibited indefinitely.

V'landys assumed responsibility for the overall co-ordination of the industry's response to this crisis, and developed and implemented contingency plans to counter the effects of the outbreak, including negotiating a $235 million rescue package.

He also lobbied New South Wales ministers for the provision of further financial assistance which resulted in the provision of a $7.5 million grants scheme and the establishment of a special mortgage deferment scheme and a further one-off grant to help promote the industry following the resumption of normal racing activities.^[1]

World Youth Day negotiations

Following the government's announcement that the World Youth Day 2008 would be held in Sydney and centred at Randwick Racecourse, V'landys coordinated the industry's planning for the use of the racecourse and the disruption which would be caused to the racing industry. This included negotiating a $40 million compensation package for the racing industry.^[1]

Race field legislation

V'landys in 2008 was responsible for enforcing corporate bookmakers and other wagering operators to pay racing for the use of its product. Up until then the bookmakers paid very little and determined themselves how much to pay. After first looking at enforcing copyright led V'landys to Race Field legislation. The bookmakers challenged Racing NSW all the way to the high court. The High Court of Australia found in favour of Racing NSW in a unanimous decision. The win meant racing would earn over a billion dollars in the next ten years. It also meant that sport could also charge the Bookmakers for the use of its product making millions of dollars for sport.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

Trackside

In 2010 V'Landys negotiated the sale to Tabcorp of the Racing NSW future revenues from the Trackside computer racing game. This sale realised $150 million and allowed the development of new spectator facilities at the Randwick Racecourse.^[7]

Recognition

In 2013 he was ranked with John Messara as the 40th of Sydney's most influential people^[8] and The Australian ranked him 22nd of the top 50 people in Australian sport.^[9]

In 2019, The Daily Telegraph in Sydney ranked V'Landys sixth from among a list of 100 of Sydney's most powerful and influential people.^[10]

V'Landys was awarded Member of the Order of Australia in the 2014 Australia Day Honours for service to horse racing.^[11][12]

The Everest race

In February 2017 V'Landys devised a new race called The Everest, which was to be conducted over 1200 metres and carry prize money of $10 million, making it the richest race in Australia and in the world on turf. The inaugural Everest race was run at Randwick Racecourse on 14 October 2017. It attracted a record crowd to Randwick Racecourse as well as record betting on an NSW race.^[13][14]

In conjunction with the second running of the Everest, V'Landys also devised and implemented another new and unique race, The Kosciusko, which was specifically directed towards country-trained horses and carried prize money of $1.3 million making it the world's richest country race.

Prior to the 2018 event, the race attracted criticism^[15][16] from the Australian public and media after organisers of the event successfully lobbied for the sails of the Sydney Opera House to be used as an advertisement for the race. Public backlash and protests against this proposal and government support of it were held at the Opera House along with submission of a petition with over 300,000 signatures collected in less than a week in October 2018, but the pre-race event went ahead in a modified format.^[17]

Allegations of wrongdoing in the horse racing industry

Following a two-year special investigation into the horse racing industry, Australian investigative journalist Caro Meldrum-Hanna interviewed V'landys in his role as chief executive of Racing NSW. The special investigation report aired on 17 October 2019 on the ABC's 7.30.^[18]

Australian Rugby League Commission

On 13 March 2018, V'Landys was appointed as an independent board member of the Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC) which also conducts the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. His appointment received the unanimous support of the 16 clubs that participate in that competition.  On 30 October 2019, V'Landys assumed the role of Chairman of the ARLC and NRL replacing the outgoing chairman, Peter Beattie. Shortly after his appointment as chairman, he successfully re-negotiated the Code's broadcast arrangements with Channel 9 and Foxtel and was instrumental in the resumption of the NRL season on 28 May 2020, after it was suspended following round two as a result of the COVID pandemic. This involved negotiating successfully with the NSW, Queensland, Victorian and New Zealand Governments, the NRL clubs, the Code's broadcast partners and the NRL Players Association plus the implementation of strict protocols and bio-security measures for players and spectators.^[21][22]

Subsequently, when the NRL competition was again threatened by the Delta variant of the Coronavirus in mid-2021, V'landys along with NRL Chief Executive Andrew Abdo and the NRL Commission made a call to relocate the nine Sydney-based clubs, as well as the Knights and Raiders to Queensland and play the remaining 2021 season matches in that State thereby again securing the financial stability of the NRL.^[23][24]

2024 NRL season launch

V'landys was the driving force behind the proposal for the NRL season launch to occur in Las Vegas to gain a foothold in the sports wagering market in the USA. On 2 March 2024, the NRL launched its season with a double header featuring Souths vs Manly and Roosters v Broncos at Allegiant Stadium, where the Super Bowl was played a few weeks prior. The event was attended by 31,927 people^[25] and was a ratings success in Australia, with record viewing audiences on Fox Sports and Channel 9.^[26]