STAKEHOLDERS have stamped urgent the need for Racing Minister Tim Mander to explain when Parliament resumes this week claims that a Racing Queensland loss of $20 million has been converted into an $8mn profit in the space of four months.
Mystery surrounds why there has been a wall of silence since new RQ Chairman Matt ‘the Magician’ McGrath boasted of this miracle achievement in a recent meeting with the Queensland Thoroughbred Breeders Association.
What the Minister needs to explain is:
How this massive turnaround of financial fortunes occurred?
If it was the result of tens of millions of money recouped that was owing from corporate bookies, how this was allowed to occur and how they were convinced to repay it overnight?
And three if Matt the Magician and his RQ sidekick Lachlan Murray have performed a financial miracle how this windfall will be spent and how much of it will be channelled into prizemoney?
LGHR hopes what Sydneysider McGrath has claimed is right but like many in the industry find it hard to believe. What confuses us is why the Racing Minister isn’t shouting this from the roof-tops as a remarkable achievement by his ‘chosen one’ to be RQ Chairman after conducting the Racing Review.
RATHER than again repeat our concerns about the McGrath appointment or his determination to see Interim CEO Murray secure the role permanently, here’s a story written by our colleague Archie Butterfly on the subscriber only website peterprofit.com is a must-read:
THE submission to the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into the proposed sale of Rosehill Racecourse by now Racing Queensland Chairman in absentia, Matthew McGrath, who lives in Cronulla, makes for interesting reading.
First the former Australian Turf Club (ATC) Chairman refers to six-time Group 1 winner and idol of the Australian turf Chautauqua as Chatacqua, which is a bit like calling Phar Lap, Far Lapp, or Winx, Winks.
Or boasting like McGrath did that when he left the ATC it had $38 million in cash, without explaining the rest of the story.
Yes, the ATC had $38 million in the bank when McGrath left, but it owed $48 million to its creditors, meaning that it was actually $10 million in the hole, not $38 million up.
McGrath then goes on to boast about his crowning achievements to secure the future of the ATC, and of racing at large.
They were:
1 – ENTERING into an agreement in 2016 with Mirvac on the sale (and development into apartments) of the King Street car park at Canterbury racecourse.
Well the agreement was actually entered into in 2017, but hey, what’s a year between friends?
Nothing other than 12 months, and that the ATC and Mirvac are no longer friends.
Almost a decade after McGrath was involved in cutting the deal, Mirvac have terminated it without the land being developed, and wants it $8 million deposit (access fee) back, a proposition with which the ATC disagrees.
The matter is currently before the courts.
2 – SELLING the Rosehill Bowls Club and the circus site (an old Rosehill Car Park) to property developers for $250 million.
That never happened either.
A decade later the land is still sitting there, just as it was.
And the $250 million figure has never been confirmed by anyone other than by those touting it.
You can’t help bad luck I guess.
Nothing much has happened with the implementation of the recommendations of the Queensland Racing Review either I guess.
At least Matt McGrath runs true to form.
Or walks it anyway.
EDITOR’S NOTE: OUR worry from a Racing Queensland perspective is that considering his track record from the ATC days, there seems to be too much smokes and mirrors when it comes to rubbery financial figures where ‘Matt the Magician’ is concerned.
