Breeding & Racing Magazine

Randwick Trainers Protest Against AJC Lease

The Randwick Trainers Association yesterday passed a vote of "no confidence" in Australian Jockey Club executive director of racing operations Richard Freedman during a heated meeting over new lease agreements at Randwick & Warwick Farm. The agreement requires trainers to meet a "minimum performance standard" relating to winners and/or runners in each racing year; if the standard is not met, the trainer can lose a lease within 6 months. In addition, the AJC can audit a trainer's accounting records "without notice" to determine the number of horses in the trainer's care. Freedman told racenet.com.au: "It's a commercial negotiation between the AJC & their tenants & it is highly unprofessional to argue this out in the public domain & I won't be indulging it."