Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys is suing a little-known racing publication for defamation. Its owner, Vicky Leonard, is refusing to back down.
Before last week the name Vicky Leonard was unrecognisable to most people outside Australia’s thoroughbred industry.
The 39-year-old New Zealander is the co-owner and managing director of The Thoroughbred Report, an online publication that publishes news about bloodstock. It’s the sort of place someone goes to read about whether breeders should incorporate more surgical history into stud books.
Her name was thrust into the public spotlight last week when Australian Rugby League Commission chairman and Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys followed through on a threat and sued her for defamation.
V’landys, who is one of the most powerful people in Australian sport, has taken exception to an article in her publication by journalist Kit Gow last November. The story questioned whether the racing industry should impose term limits on CEOs (V’landys has been chief executive of the racing regulator since 2004) and if the administrator can juggle his rugby league commitments (he has held both roles for longer than six years).
The Thoroughbred Report was not the only publication to receive a legal threat, but it is the only one that refused to make changes or take an article down.
Indeed, Leonard took it a step further. She issued a concerns notice to V’landys for defamation over his claims she benefited financially from cash raised for a racing awareness project called National Thoroughbred Week.
“There won’t be any backing down,” she told The Australian Financial Review. “I’m very resolute in my desire to make sure the industry knows that someone’s willing to stand up for them because so many people can’t.
“I represent a voice for the industry and I think that that is something [V’landys] wants to go away.”
Leonard is a lifelong lover of horses and has worked in the industry for two decades. Born and raised in New Zealand, she began her career at Cambridge Stud while at university before joining the New Zealand Racing Board as a graduate.
Concerned about the future of racing in NZ, she secured a spot in a Godolphin Flying Start program, a two-year leadership scholarship designed to set up the industry’s future. She topped her class and secured a job with Arrowfield Stud owner John Messara, who had just been appointed chairman of Racing NSW in 2011.
Leonard worked as Arrowfield’s marketing manager until 2018 when she started Kick Collective, a marketing agency that specialises in work for the thoroughbred industry. She also runs not-for-profit platform Kick-Up, which focuses on welfare education and tries to reduce negative perceptions about the industry through research and content.
Racing NSW is first and foremost a regulator of the racing industry. Over the years – and particularly under V’landys – it has expanded into ever-more successful commercial activities such as The Everest and The Big Dance. But it was established primarily to govern and license the industry.
According to Leonard, V’landys was initially a big supporter of her work.
“When I set up Kick Up he was the first person to ring and congratulate me, saying it was a terrific idea,” she said.
Over time, that dynamic changed. Leonard, through her various roles, became hyper-focused on equine welfare, demanding data, statistics and information about how money is being spent to protect thoroughbreds.
Her publication’s decision to scrutinise a plan to extend the tenure of former Racing NSW chairman Russell Balding on the board exacerbated tensions. In 2023, the Minns government proposed legislative change to extend Balding’s tenure to 14 years. They ultimately backed down after breeders and other figures in the racing industry threatened legal action.
V’landys’ tenure, according to Leonard, was important to scrutinise because governance structures are a topic being assessed by a state government review of the Thoroughbred Racing Act.
“Everything I want to do for the industry is focused on making sure the industry is going to be here in 30 years,” she said. “We ask for information, we push for answers to pertinent topics, and that means covering pieces that explore both the highs and the lows of something.
“Racing NSW and Mr V’landys might only want the highs to be published, but the industry has to live with the lows every day, and that’s what we make sure that these pieces cover.”
Gow’s article, published on November 19, weighed up the benefits and disadvantages of a longstanding CEO.
V’landys declined to comment for this article. He has previously claimed the story contained misinformation about the state of the racing industry under his watch and implied that he could not give enough attention to racing because of his role as chairman of the ARLC.
He also claimed Kick Collective benefited financially from cash raised for National Thoroughbred Week, a nationwide project launched last year to raise awareness about the positives of racing. Leonard categorically denies this and issued him a concerns notice.
Privately, V’landys is concerned some coverage of racing industry governance in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian Financial Review is coloured by parent company Nine, which is about to enter broadcast negotiations with the NRL. He is also convinced some prominent people in the racing industry are conspiring to overthrow him, according to several people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to speak freely.
The defamation lawsuit has not appeared in Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph or The Australian, owned by News Corporation.
This is not the first time V’landys has threatened or lodged defamation proceedings.
In 2019, he filed against the ABC and journalist Caro Meldrum-Hanna for a program that published footage of racehorses being slaughtered and made allegations about a failure of regulation. He lost the case and an appeal.
The concerns notice sent to Leonard last December was not the first she had received from Racing NSW, via solicitor Mark O’Brien. Leonard said V’landys had done “amazing things”, including securing critical funding for the industry, but claimed the state regulator’s relationship with breeders has become fractured.
“We need to be able to ask questions of our industry leadership,” Leonard said. “They are spending the industry’s money, after all, and we expect cordial answers and a dialogue.”
Leonard’s case is being funded in several ways – privately by breeders and agents from the bloodstock industry and publicly through a GoFundMe, which has so far raised close to $95,000.
The majority of backers on the site have remained anonymous but publicly listed donors include Glen Hill Farm president Craig Bernick, breeder Matthew Sandblom, Champion Thoroughbreds owner Jason Abrahams, Twin Hills Stud owners Olly and Amber Tait and Yarraman Park Stud, which donated $10,000.
It is unclear whether V’landys is funding his side of the case himself or whether the Racing NSW board is supporting its chief executive. But with neither party backing down, it is set to be a long fight.
“This is all about principle,” Leonard said. “Our industry is full of people who are too afraid to speak up because of the fear of retribution. They are licensed participants, and their licence is controlled by Racing NSW. Their fear of repercussion is enormous.”
Article by Zoe Samios – Financial Review 17 Feb – https://www.afr.com/companies/sport/the-woman-fighting-australia-s-most-powerful-sports-administrator-20260212-p5o1u5
