There is no doubting that Peter V'Landys is energetic. Today he found time to defend himself against a "rumour" that had only surfaced in the previous twenty-four hours.
But the Racing NSW supremo always has a card up his sleeve when dealing with most matters: blur the issue. Having such a cosy relationship with Tabcorp, Racing NSW has the market cornered on media coverage, and this was again proved today during his very well prepared and scripted interview with Shaun Cosgrove on Sky Sports Radio this morning. The "no confidence" motion referred to by Peter V'Landys was not about Racing NSW continuing to fight the Race Fields legislation in the courts, but eight individual issues that are affecting the NSW trainers greatly (the issues are properly covered by Clinton Payne of Racenet here). But Peter chose to completely ignore this fact, and go off on the Race Fields Legislation tangent. He had to. Because his supposed "overwhelming support from the industry" was not support for Peter V'Landys and the Racing NSW board, but only support for the Race Fields Legislation. Trackdata has reproduced these statements in our previous news stories, and a quick read of these press releases clearly shows that the industry bodies have carefully chosen their words. There was no endorsement for Peter V'Landys and Racing NSW generally from any group this week. Only support for the Racing NSW Race Fields Legislation court action. While most of the interview was absurd, there were two statements that were absolutely farcical: "The lobby group for wagering operators is substantial" and "they [bookmakers] use every means they can to intimidate and bully". The lobby group that Peter V'Landys is referring to are the handful of racing journalists in this country who are completely independant. Apparently we "intimidate and bully" by writing the truth. Clearly, Bill Saunders of TVF Cyberhorse is one journalist that is really getting under Peter's skin, with one of his recent articles being brought into question during the interview. Peter blurred the issue once again by disputing different facts than the ones correctly raised by Bill. Lobby groups, by definition, are paid to pursue a policy. No-one is paying journalists directly to push the bookmakers view. Oh wait, hold on, I could be wrong. How does that relationship between Tabcorp and News Limited work again? Kevin Skene, TRACKDATA, 14/07/2010 |
BLURRING THE ISSUE IS A TIRESOME TACTIC
