Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
On 27 November 2025, The Thoroughbred Report received a defamation concerns notice issued on behalf of Mr Peter V’landys, containing false and damaging assertions directed at me personally. The letter also made allegations about Lindy Maurice.
It alleges that the sponsorship and participation funds for our industry initiatives National Thoroughbred Week and Pony Racing were channeled to be used for our personal gain.
For any avoidance of doubt: these allegations are untrue, shockingly defamatory and deeply undermine our work delivered for the industry’s benefit.
The allegations attempt to deflect from the real issue: there are longstanding gaps in public education, social licence, and community engagement that the regulator has consistently refused to address.
Gaps we, as passionate, racing-loving women, stepped in to fill off our own bat.
I will not allow the efforts of Lindy and myself to be denigrated.
National Thoroughbred Week & Kick Up: Vicky Leonard
National Thoroughbred Week was established to give the public genuine behind-the-scenes access to studs, stables and aftercare facilities across Australia and New Zealand and improve horse racing’s social license.
It was delivered through an Australian public company limited by guarantee, operating on a not-for-profit basis.
My involvement was entirely voluntary and unpaid.
The pilot faced a significant funding shortfall throughout the entirety of its planning stages, so engaging external companies to help with the project wasn’t possible. My marketing agency Kick Collective provided heavily subsidised staff and labour, operational infrastructure, underwrote early costs and took on financial risk. We also prioritised the project over fully paid commercial work in order to make it happen.
Thanks to a small, passionate and dedicated committee, several visionary partners and dozens of volunteers all around Australia and New Zealand, we kept moving and got the project off the ground.
And the five-day pilot last month was an enormous success: more than 80 hosts ran events, 5,000+ people attended to huge positive feedback, hundreds of thousands engaged on social media, and earned media coverage was extensive across both countries.
Kick Up, the content platform which I founded because horse racing is routinely targeted by animal-welfare extremists and misinformation was eroding public trust, operates on a not-for-profit basis too.
A couple of passionate racehorse owners contribute modest sponsorships that assist in offsetting a small portion of resource costs. One-off projects - such as the Breeding Hub, created in response to misinformation following Black Caviar’s death - are funded with a “pass the hat around supporters” approach.
Kick Up’s work is made possible through my extensive unpaid hours, and subsidised resources provided by Kick Collective.
Thoroughbred Industry Careers & Pony Racing: Lindy Maurice
Thoroughbred Industry Careers (TIC) and Pony Racing were developed by Lindy to strengthen the industry’s future through education, participation, and youth engagement - again, challenges that had not been adequately addressed by the regulator.
TIC connected schools, training providers, farms, and racing organisations with youth and created genuine career pathways. Pony Racing provided young riders with a safe, structured entry point into the sport. It relied on donations from passionate participants, community collaboration and a small team working hard for nominal salaries.
Lindy paid herself a modest salary well below market rate for working full-time to deliver a national program of this scale and impact.
Neither program was created for personal benefit, and neither generated commercial profit.
In fact, the annual challenge of finding funding was so difficult (with no support from Racing NSW) that Lindy sadly made the decision to wind down TIC earlier this year and pass Pony Racing over to the state bodies.
Closing Statement
Our stakeholders have always received full and transparent information whenever asked - a standard that Racing NSW does not uphold.
Across National Thoroughbred Week, Kick Up, Thoroughbred Industry Careers and Pony Racing, our work has focused on filling the critical gaps the regulator refuses to address.
That I must issue this statement to defend our work - embraced across the industry - underscores how far the regulator’s leadership in New South Wales has deteriorated from the standards of integrity horse racing deserves.
It needs to change.
