Interstate racing feud: 'A silly little man making silly decisions'

[Chief Stipe]

Victoria Racing Club chair Amanda Elliott has fired a fierce shot in the racing war with NSW by labelling Racing NSW chief executive Peter V'landys "a silly little man making silly decisions".

Elliott was taking aim at Racing NSW over their recent prizemoney increases and races including the $14 million The Everest and $7.5 million The Golden Eagle.

Elliott, speaking as she revealed the Melbourne Cup would now be worth $8 million, said there was a responsibility to have a national approach in regards to racing in Australia. 

"We actually do have a national responsibility to the sport of racing in Australia," Elliott told radio RSN. 

"We all know that we have geographic boundaries that sometimes gets a bit pushed and pulled and we're all doing our best for our own jurisdictions, but at the end of the day, the Australian racing industry is the one we care about.

"So this kind of single-minded determination to knock off Victoria just infuriates me to be honest.

"I think it's just a silly little man making silly decisions.

"I mean we all understand how important prizemoney is, don't get me wrong. But at the end of the day, racing is about so much more than prizemoney."

You can read V'landys response to Elliott's 'silly little man' comments by clicking HERE 

Elliott later rang V'landys to apologise about her "silly little man" remark, leaving a voice message on V'landys phone, and he accepted the apology.

However Elliott believes prizemoney being offered for some races is counterproductive for the sport. 

"Prizemoney is vital to owners and trainers and connections. But having this sort of prizemoney spiral and everybody thinking that they somehow need to join this race to the bottom, or race to the top, whichever way you care to look at this prizemoney argument, it's just counterproductive," she said on RSN.

"Money isn't the only thing. This glorious sport, in some way, is demeaned by this rather unnatural amount of prizemoney that's being thrown at one or two races. 

"I know people will say 'that's hypocrisy because you've just put up the Melbourne Cup'. The Melbourne Cup is the most important race in Australia. It's the most important staying race in the world and it is now worth $8 million. That's plenty."

Racing NSW recently ramped up their quest to usurp Victoria as the country’s premier state for spring racing after announcing a raft of new additions to their $45 million The Everest carnival.

Australia's two most powerful and prominent racing states have been at loggerheads for several years and that will reach new levels during the spring carnival.