Written by Grant Sheldon
I am not an ATC member and I don’t live in NSW. But I do believe the strength of Sydney racing is of paramount importance to our national breeding industry. As such, I have read lots of opinions for and against the Sell Rosehill strategy.
From my mostly unemotional perspective, I can see the sale has strategic merit.
But I think a key consideration has been overlooked in most of the material I have read: Strategy is only one part of achieving excellent outcomes. The other, more important part, is Execution. Execution in turn is dependent upon Capability and Leadership.
I think most people that have followed any football code over the years will have seen coaches come and go that have tried to introduce a new strategic game plan.
They often fail because they either don’t have the players capable of executing it and/or they don’t have leadership to keep the entire team united in adhering to it. As a result they continue to lose, typically beaten by teams that have great leadership and the capability to do simple things consistently well.
Rosehill Gardens | Image courtesy of Australian Turf Club
In our own industry we have seen many examples of excellence in Leadership and Capability delivering great outcomes: Magic Millions was resuscitated and has thrived under people like Gerry Harvey, Katie Page-Harvey, Vin Cox, etc.
Inglis transformed from a very traditional family owned company to now dominate the digital space under people like Mark Webster, Arthur Inglis and Nick Melmeth, etc. and when the AJC and STC merged successful business people like Ron Finemore, John Cornish and John Camilleri, etc. were key players.
Which leads me to suggest that if you are an undecided voter then it may be beneficial to think less about the headline numbers and more about the capability and leadership demonstrated thus far by those at the ATC whom will be executing the Sell Rosehill strategy.
Hope this helps in some way - even we interstaters have a vested interest in Sydney racing thriving.
