Racing: Attacks fail to deter Stiassny

Michael Stiassny. Photo / APN

New Zealand Racing Board Chairman Michael Stiassny is undeterred by verbal attacks and is backing the new Racing Integrity Unit.

The centralised unit, which brings together thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing, has attracted plenty of opposition but Stiassny says several recent positive drug tests justify the existence of the new body.

"Some people think we are muckraking and making an issue public that is not really there," says Stiassny.

"The fact is we have had six positive tests - across the three disciplines - in the last six or seven weeks which I think shows there is an issue.

"The priority is to make sure that this is a sport where people who wager have confidence that it is clean. The desire is to have an industry that is beyond reproach. "

Meanwhile, Stiassny confirmed the recent personal attacks by bloodstock agent Rob McAnulty were the worst he has received in his career.

"If I don't have any more telephone calls of that nature in my life, that will be great," said Stiassny. "The telephone calls he made and messages he left are not about debating racing issues - that is the fundamental issue here.

"They have been on different issues - personal and outside the norms - not only to me but [chief stipendiary steward] Cameron George and others and that isn't what this is about."

It will be at least six weeks before McAnulty knows if he will be disqualified as an owner after admitting the verbal abuse of Stiassny.

Through his lawyer, McAnulty pleaded guilty at a Judicial Control Authority hearing at Ellerslie to charges of misconduct relating to his using "foul, insulting and offensive words" directed at Stiassny and George in voicemail and email messages, according to a report carried by the Waikato Times.

McAnulty was absent, having "serious matters to attend to in Australia", said his lawyer Simativa Perese.

New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing lawyer John Billington was granted time to file submissions on penalties and costs.

The Waikato Times report said McAnulty could face up to eight months' disqualification as an owner.

It reported Billington as saying costs and expenses would be greater than normal. As it was the first time any person had been charged with abuse of an official, it had taken more time to research what was likely to become a precedent case.

Billington said both Stiassny and George had felt "threatened" and "intimidated".

He said Stiassny had felt most offended by the personal references to his religion and "his being Jewish", according to the newspaper.

"The [Racing Integrity] Unit is looking for a deterrent, a message to anyone else who might like to use the same sort of behaviour," it quoted Billington as saying.

Jockey Jason Waddell was suspended for six weeks for abusing a Rotorua Racing Club official but Billington said what set McAnulty's offending apart was a "pre-meditated course of conduct".

In a statement, McAnulty said he accepted that the words he had used in his telephone messages were insulting and abusive and apologised to Stiassny and George for "their hurt feelings".

"This isolated episode grew out of my extreme frustration about the conduct of racing in New Zealand and in particular the roles of Mr Stiassny and Mr George. I accept the way in which I expressed my frustration was wrong and they may have undermined the proper legal avenues available to challenge what I consider to be serious issues concerning the conduct of racing in New Zealand."

"I was wrong and I accept that I was wrong," he said.

Gold Coast-based McAnulty indicated he was prepared for his impending disqualification when he noted he would need to transfer his ownership interests to a third party.

He has a share in San Cabo, a form runner which carried his colours in the 1600m maiden race at Te Rapa yesterday but finished sixth.

McAnulty, a former New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing director, quit New Zealand for Queensland in 2005, saying he was "sick of racing in New Zealand for a sack of kumaras", in reference to low stakes.

He has four times bought the top-priced yearling at the Karaka yearling sales and raced gallopers the quality of Mouawad, Great Command, St Reims and De Beers.