Australian Turf Club

Australian Turf Club
Industry Thoroughbred racing and events
Founded 2011
Headquarters Sydney, Australia
Number of employees
 200+
Website https://www.australianturfclub.com.au/


The Australian Turf Club (ATC)[1] owns and operates thoroughbred racing, events and hospitality venues across Sydney, Australia. The ATC came into being on 7 February 2011 when the Australian Jockey Club and the Sydney Turf Club merged.[2] The ATC primarily operates out of their offices at Randwick Racecourse and employs approximately 220 full-time staff and over 2,000 casual staff across the five venues.[3]

History

Australian Jockey Club

The Australian Jockey Club (AJC) was founded in January 1842. It morphed from the former Australian Racing Committee set up in May 1840 to set the standards for racing in the colony. Races were held at the newly established Homebush Course which was headquarters of NSW racing until 1860. The AJC was considered the senior racing club in Australia and was responsible for founding the Australian Stud Book, which the combined club still oversees today. The club also, in conjunction with the Victoria Racing Club, formulated the Rules of Racing that are followed by all Australian race clubs.[4]

Sydney Turf Club

The Sydney Turf Club (STC) was founded in 1943 and was the youngest of Australia's principal race clubs. It was formed following an Act passed by the New South Wales parliament called the Sydney Turf Club Act. The Act had taken 40 years to draft and gave the club the power to hold 62 race meetings a year at the tracks and empowered it to wind up other proprietary clubs that still existed in the Sydney area through a special Racing Compensation Fund.[5]

Merger

Both the Australian Jockey Club and the Sydney Turf Club had co-existed as independent bodies since the early 1940s. However, the first push for a merger came at the start of the century, with STC chairman Graeme Pash opening up the possibility of a merger during his tenure.[6] Mentioned briefly in jest by Sydney Morning Herald journalist Craig Young in 2003,[7] the first real push for a merger came with the release of a report by Ernst and Young in June 2009 which recommended that a merger would save the New South Wales racing industry from collapse.[8] The NSW Government pledged $174 million for Sydney racing if the merger went ahead, including a major revitalisation of Randwick racecourse. The move for a merger was controversial, with members of both clubs hesitant to lose their respective identities. While AJC members voted in favour of a merger, STC members voted against a merger. Nevertheless, the board of the STC decided to proceed with a merger. The Australian Jockey and Sydney Turf Clubs Merger Act 2010[9] merged the two clubs under the name of the Australian Turf Club.

Venues

Five venues are operated by the ATC:

Major races

AJC Easter Carnival

The AJC Easter Carnival is the 2nd major part of the Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival. Traditionally the carnival begins on Easter Saturday and contained up to four days of racing over a three-week period. In 2008 the carnival was delayed by four weeks due to the 2007 Australian equine influenza outbreak.

References

  1. ↑ Australian Turf Club - About Us Retrieved 7 October 2016
  2. ↑ Australian Turf Club - History Retrieved 7 October 2016
  3. ↑ Australian Turf Club - Meet the Team Retrieved 7 October 2016
  4. ↑ Australian Jockey Club (1982), Australian Jockey Club, The Club, ISBN 978-0-9592250-0-6
  5. ↑ Lester, Gary (2011), The essential club : A history of the Sydney Turf Club 1943-2011 (1st ed.), Playright Publishing, retrieved 27 June 2012
  6. ↑ Racing loses a man of passion
  7. ↑ Roll Up, Roll Up! Loosen Your Purse Strings For The Turf's Sale Of The Century Archived July 6, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ↑ Clubs merger would save NSW racing: report
  9. ↑ "AUSTRALIAN JOCKEY AND SYDNEY TURF CLUBS MERGER ACT 2010". AustLII. Australasian Legal Information Institute. 2010. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  10. ↑ ATC News & Media: ATC MEMBERS VOTE TO AMALGAMATE WITH ROSEHILL BOWLING CLUB
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