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11 August 2008 The Insider - What really goes on at RVL HQ
Mailman Exclusive: RVL Insider's Daily Diary
Monday NEW 11 August
Well, what a huge day it was at Markdel! Or more particularly, the bus ride home.
No one is entirely sure what happened, but one of the TVN boys did overhear Peter Sweeney leaving a message on a phone for someone called "Sugar Ray" Callender.
All we can work out is that whatever happened involved big Richie, a long neck, a Herald Sun photographer and blood. Although apparently witnesses confirm that Callender was both blame-free and blood-free.
It was mixed feelings for Dunny - he got his free lunch, but had to spend all Monday ringing people up to try to find out what his photographer got up to. He was furious The Mailman rang him at work and seemed to know more about it than Dunny did himself.
For his part, the photographer couldn't help - he had no recollection of the incident
On the stewards front, Bails reckons someone must be bugging his office, as that's the only way details of his call from [deleted] on Tuesday could have appeared here. He cancelled the Monday morning stewards meeting until he has had his office swept. Another job for BatMON.
Friday NEW 8 August
A big day for those who made the cut - the Freedman's big media day down at Markdel.
Someone at the Hun told me that Dunny was furious that his usual limo had been cancelled and he had take the bus with everyone else. Massive dummy spit apparently, and he has decided to make his own way down and doesn't even think he will stay for lunch.
Good to see he hasn't lost the common touch.
Thursday NEW 7 August
Things are heating up in the stewards department. Dayle Brown has sent out a memo directing all staff that they are not allowed to speak to the media themselves and that any media requests must be referred through him in future. Someone went to question him about it and he was overheard to say "that includes floggers like the Mailman", although I think that was a slip of the tongue, he must have meant to say "bloggers".
He's still dirty on his past association with that Paul Pavlovski bloke being brought up and he's worried that there might be more to come. Well, at least that's what some bloke at HRV was saying at the pub the other night.
Wednesday NEW 6 August
The inquiry into leaks from Racing Victoria has been a dismal failure from one point of view. Those ridiculously high priced forensic accountants have failed to find any leaks sent by email to the Mailman, in particular the document that he published back at the start of June.
On the up side, they found lots of details of other documents that had been leaked to other people, but most of those will go nowhere. Unless you are on Bail’s list. Then you are up the proverbial without a paddle. [deleted] is such a joker, he keeps going up to his mates and says “you’re on the list”. The problem is no one knows whether he is joking or not, except those who were at the pub the other night.
Tuesday NEW 5 August
[deleted] rang the stewards department again today. No one can be certain what he wanted, he just asked to be put straight through to Bails. We all reckon it was because I mentioned last week that he had rung in the week before when he spoke to [deleted]. Bails was not happy. He has made a list of people he wants gone, one of the blokes photocopied it while he was at the races on [deleted, so that Dean Cruise can’t check his CCTV] and we passed it round at the pub the other night.
Certain blokes are preparing themselves for the cut, it always helps to have some documents up your sleeve as insurance, just in case.
The funny thing is they think there is just the one leak, that Incinerator Inquiry document. The Mailman has more documents and some tapes and I know two other stewards have contacted him and offered more stuff if they get flicked.
The bottom line is that there are two distinct factions in the Stewards Department – The Baileyites and the Cramsters. There can only be one winner.
Monday NEW 4 August
Crammy sent a picture of Bails through to Chris Skorsis for the website. Unfortunately, it was of a horses arse and it was just meant as a joke. Bails didn’t find it funny, but Chris was on the ball and stopped it before the IT guys whacked it up.
Not much in it, but enough to get the regular Monday morning meeting cancelled.
There’s a rumour that there are going to be lots of changes in a couple of weeks. Apparently, [deleted] is not happy about the location of the security camera monitors and wants a full review of security contracts, in particular why two security companies are needed.
“Cruiser” won’t be happy, he loves his monitors. He still goes on about the time he was able to identify someone who had “found” some jewellery in the car park from his security cameras, then find out their names and track them to a motel in Canberra the next day.
The next bit is a bit hazy and Cruiser won’t go into details. Somehow, someone “visited” the hotel in which these people were staying, the jewellery was repossessed and returned to the owner, all within 48 hours.
Victoria Police have nothing on these guys. Allegedly.
Friday NEW 1 August
Day off today. That didn’t stop people ringing me though.
Turns out Clayton Utes is a type of law firm and they were helping Bernie read the preliminary report into "RVLgate" as RVL's external PR consultant has dubbed it.
It looks like he has been taking lessons in issuing “Please explains” from Andrew Demetriou. Once he understood it all, he had them rip off a letter to [deleted]. They cc'd him the letter, which was sent through to my Blackberry. He’s got to be more careful with stuff he leaves in the photocopy machine.
It’s like that list of wages and salaries and contract payments the Mailman got, stupidly left in the photocopier, original document untouched, copies made. Careless.
Bails has been on the phone to Chris Skorsis about half a dozen times to get Des’s photo taken off the website and his one put up.
Thursday NEW 31 July
The girls upstairs have just finished cleaning out Stephen Allanson’s office. Finally, they got everything into boxes, but no one is prepared to make the call to tell him it’s ready to pick up. They reckon they’ve lost his number. Maybe they should check the Price Waterhouse Coopers report, his number is plastered all over that.
It seems that some of the redundancies weren’t redundancies after all, with at least one position upstairs being filled again. No names, no packdrills.
Bernie spent the afternoon bunkered down negotiating the purchase of a new fleet of vehicles with Clayton Utes. Good to see Racing Victoria reverting back to it’s roots, no more Mercs and BM’s.
Wednesday 30 July
Bernie left his phone next to the photocopier this afternoon and one of the blokes from Finance found it. As he was returning it to Gayle, it rang and on the screen it said "Don't Answer". So he jotted down the number and brought it round to my desk. We rang it and Adrian Dunn answered. He really isn't going to get many more leaks out of Racing Victoria. Unofficial leaks, that is.
Official leaks he still gets. And emails from the Minister's advisers apparently. Dressed up as articles.
Hullsy rang for Bernie again. He knew the call was coming, so he was already under his desk. He didn’t want an embarrassing repeat of last Wednesday, when they thought he had knocked himself out.
Gayle just told the Minister that Mr Saundry was down in the Integrity Services Department and mobile phones were banned down there under the Rules of Racing. That woman is worth her weight in gold.
Leigh Jordan was in a flap this afternoon. He rushed around to Bernie's office to tell him something urgent and important. We couldn't work out what the problem was, we already knew about the problems with bringing the Japanese horses in and in fact someone should already have leaked that to The Age by now.
Turns out he just wanted to report to Bernie that The Mailman had left him a couple of messages and let him know that he hadn't rung him back. They are all a bit scared of being accused of leaking here at the moment. Unofficial leaks, that is.
You have to remember, there is a huge difference between official and unofficial leaks.
Tuesday 29 July
Looks like the joke about the bloke that sets up the tents getting the Mornington job wasn’t far off the mark. Apparently, the bloke got recruited from an events company to eventually take over from Browell, but is just a bit off being ready.
Scotty Whiteman is furious that details of his salary were released and has ordered an investigation. The computer imaging inquiry has been extended to include the computers of all staff members at CRV now too.
They have drawn a blank down in the Stewards Department, but those forensic accountants have billing budgets to meet so they are hitting up all the other Department heads to check their staff computers too. Could be a good time to remove hard drives. I've already taken mine out and replaced it with a new one, just saved all the info on a memory stick and transferred it back.
Monday 28 July
Another blue on Monday morning with the stewards, this time because Bails put Crammy’s name second last on the list of stewards on the Official Stewards Report from Moonee Valley. Crammy reckons he should have been second not second last as he nearly knocked Bails off for the top gig. Bails reckons if the did it on ability then Crammy’s name wouldn’t even be on the same page as his. Mind you they didn’t say this to each other, they are still not talking.
Meeting cancelled.
The person who ran that ad in the Hun about the “Plumber Required” at Racing Victoria wasn’t far off the mark. Des got a call from the Mailman today to tell him he had received more Racing Victoria Stewards documents. I think Des was probably a bit amused because as of Thursday, it’s Not His Problem.
Les Obriem rang about 20 people today to complain about something that was going to happen on Tuesday, but most people were out to lunch all afternoon so no one got the messages.
Friday 25 July
Pretty quiet day at work today. Bernie is moping around a bit but has been very stoic in hiding his disappointment.
Word came through that Michael Browell’s old gig at Mornington was going to be filled by some bloke who used to set up the tents on Mornington Cup Day. But that just sounds like the jokers in Ownership having a lend of everyone again. That job hasn’t even been advertised yet.
Thursday 24 July
It’s amazing the things you hear when you drink at the right pubs. Last night I was throwing back a few with a few of The Mailman’s “deepthroats” (deep pockets and short arms more like) and one of them reckons there was a bit of a sting going on over the last fortnight.
It’s no secret that the head honchos are pretty keen to find the source of the leaks emanating from RVL, which don’t stop at the Stewards Department. Clarko was pretty upset that The Mailman had a copy of all the amounts paid to contractors and certain senior staff and was able to quote to the cent his expense account he submitted to RVL one particular month. But that’s another inquiry.
Anyway, it was suggested that some of the senior people here leaked the names of supposed applicants to a handful of “suspects” (one name each), to see who leaked to who. It should be interesting to see if someone leaks the results of that inquiry to Pfatprick Smith.
I saw a phone message on Gayle’s desk for Bernie from The Mailman this afternoon. I would love to be a fly on the wall for that conversation.
Wednesday 23 July
Bit of an emergency upstairs this afternoon. Hullsy rang for Bernie and in his haste to hide under his desk, it looked like he banged his head and knocked himself out cold. Ambulance, a couple of paramedics, the whole lot. Turned out to be a false alarm. Bernie hadn’t knocked himself out at all, he had just fallen asleep while he was under there.
Also, I found a phone message in the recycling bin from some bloke at the Hun called Tim, I think it was, who had rung to getting a phone number for Barrie Quick, the station manager at SEN. I wonder what he wants at SEN, maybe they are going to start calling races soon?
Apart from Dunny’s yelling, there’s a funny kind of peace that has fallen over the whole place. There’s a kind of excited anticipation at the new boss coming in and some of us are getting a bit sick of having to undermine the place by leaking all this confidential info.
Someone in accounts spoke to a bloke called Tim in Queensland who used to work for Mr Hines in the UK and he pumped his tyres, so we are all looking forward to him starting. The tip is he is a hard task master and very goal driven, but he will “give everyone the tools they need to do the job then expect it done”. That’s what the accounts bloke said the Queensland bloke said not me. He said something about “empowerment” and that’s when I switched off. I hate that corporate claptrap.
One of the jokers in Ownership had a good idea – he thought he would run an ad in the Hun, looking for a plumber who can fix leaks and put in RVL’s number, partly just to see which journos read their own paper. With a sense of humour like that, he should be in finance.
Tuesday 22 July
The place was abuzz today. A rumour spread that they were going to announce the new CEO today. Well, it wasn’t so much that a rumour spread, more of an email. Seems Mr Duffy sent a private and confidential email to Gayle and accidently cc’d it to the “all staff” email, so it was not a great surprise that Hinesy got the job in the end.
Bernard spent the morning ringing up everyone in his phone book telling them that the stuff in The Insider Diary on themailman.com.au was untrue. Apparently, he has never locked himself in the stationary cupboard.
Dunny rang up a few times because The Mailman had rung Matty Stewart on Monday night to tell him that Mark Smith was categorically not in the running for the job and in fact had only had the one chat about four weeks ago. Unfortunately, it came after the deadline time at the Herald Sun and Dunny had already written an article announcing that the final two candidates were Saundry and Smith. He is not happy about having egg on his face.
Someone pointed out that it was Brendan Cormick who should have the egg on his face because he ran it in The Australian a few days earlier. Dunny’s response was that he has MORE egg on his face because no one reads The Australian. Well he obviously does.
He has made such a song and dance complaining about the leaks at RVL that no one would take his call except Gayle and she sorted him out.
Monday 21 July
Another blue down in the Integrity Services Department. Seems someone from The Age (he’s certainly NOT in the running for the Dubai trip) has been asking questions about some incident on Derby Day last year with [deleted for legal reasons]. Crammy reckons Bails leaked it, but he can’t prove it. Seems they cancelled their Monday morning meeting again and another week of “no talkies” looms.
There was some drama on Friday afternoon that I only caught up with when I got into work this morning. There was a bit of discussion as to how The Mailman was able to find out who leaked the secret report into the leaks at Racing Victoria to Patrick Smith, given that only four senior people at RVL had the report (and a few guys in IT apparently).
The Chairman was going to call him, I haven’t heard if he got around to it yet. He’s been flat out with some blokes from the law firm Fish & Nankivell or something.
Someone overheard some talk about the CEO gig coming from the Board Room, they were laughing how Dunny and Cormick think the Chocolates Guy is the fave, even though they haven’t actually spoken to him. Actually he hasn’t spoken to any “journos”. You would think they would have checked before they ran it.
Patrick is spewing because Duffy didn't even tell him, but that would have been too obvious.
Friday 18 July
The “Porn Gate” incident of Tuesday is over. Seems it was a storm in a tea cup. One of the young blokes mates forwarded him a link to Zoo Weekly’s website and the Roberta Williams link. The IT guys have warning systems set up on all RVL computers and the “bad taste” and “underworld” warning went off.
After a three day hearing before Bails, Sharpie and Crammy (even though none of them are talking to each other), the young bloke has just pleaded guilty to an “error of judgement” and was sent home for the rest of the day on full pay.
Apparently Bails announced the next inquiry he wants to hold is into who keeps putting up copies of that old letter in the Winning Post, talking about the Benny Hill music in the Stewards Department. And he’s worried about people farting when he walks past!
Apparently an email went out to Melbourne Racing Club this morning demanding that all tickets to the Committee Room be checked at the lift and that background checks be done on all people sitting with RVL Board members on Saturday. They don’t want The Mailman sneaking in again.
Thursday 17 July
Quiet day at RVL, but apparently there was some drama over at TVN. It seems Peter Sweeney went bananas this morning and banned every “Your Say” letter to the Winning Post this week. Then he had all his staff write letters under different names, all complimenting TVN. Unfortunately, the wrong file got sent through to the printers and the original letters ran. Lucky Integrity Services have no jurisdiction there, that inquiry would have lasted a year.
KPMG, the crowd Integrity Services brought in after they flicked Deloites when some trouble maker pointed out that there may have been a conflict of interest given the GM used to work there, have been going through all the computers, desperately trying to find the email with the transcript the Mailman published a couple of months back.
One of the jokers from finance pointed out that each one of those “forensic accountants” was costing RVL at least $300 per hour, more than Scotty Whiteman costs Country Racing. Just.
Speaking of Scotty, it was good to see him interrupt his holidays to write a press release criticising Racing Victoria about the prize money increases. He normally never interrupts his holidays for anything. It must be a sign that everyone is getting more serious in here.
One thing they did haven’t found yet is “crannypete’s” application to become a steward. It looks like they haven’t quite gotten around to checking everyone’s computers just yet. It will be funny to see if THAT makes the report to the Board.
Wednesday 16 July
Bernie didn’t come in today. Conjecture at lunch was that it was either because he couldn’t face his weekly phone call from Hullsy or he was just upset about missing the Valley gig. Gayle told the Big H that he had had a dodgy curry last night. The Minister didn’t buy it this time as this was the same excuse Gayle used a few weeks back, so was going to try him at home.
The “Porn Gate” inquiry continued. They grilled the IT guy for five hours. They made him detail everything he did on the day he noticed the offending website had been visited, including coffee and toilet breaks. Then they asked him again, looking for inconsistencies in his responses. This continued until Crammy pointed out to Bails (via an intermediary, they’re still not talking) that they actually don’t want to find any inconsistencies in the IT guy’s story, he’s their star witness.
Seems The Mailman is still in hot water. There have been a few meetings with the accounts payable personnel to find out how salary and contractor billing details made their way past the water tight security at Racing Victoria. It seems like someone may have been asleep in his office instead of watching the security monitors. Or not.
Tuesday 15 July
Dramas today, there’s a rumour circulating that one of the really junior stewards got pinged for looking at porn on his work computer. The proverbial will really hit the fan over this one, this is a serious offence at RVL and it looks like the kid is going to have to fall on his sword.
When Bernie got a whiff that he could sack someone without having to retrench them and pay them ten weeks pay, he nearly broke his neck to get downstairs to order the inquiry. Unfortunately it took him a while to work out how to get down there and he got lost on the way and Bails had already started.
Dunny was doing the ring around again yesterday. Now he’s furious that he wrote an item in Free Rein last week announcing how happy he was that there were no more leaks as to who was going to get the CEO gig. Then on the weekend the Cormick fellow wrote about the Cadbury’s bloke being the new favourite and obviously someone has leaked details of the New Zealand bloke [deleted, name leaked but unconfirmed with applicant] to The Mailman.
The best Dunny could come up with was to suggest that Greg Nichols was back in the running, despite the fact that Greg told one of Dunny’s colleagues that he was categorically NOT interested in the job at the moment. He only put him up because Peter Young rang Nichols to ask him to consider running about two months ago.
Someone was able to placate him by convincing him that hardly any one reads the Australian and only a few thousand more read The Mailman and neither come anywhere near the Hun. He seemed to enjoy the warm wet feeling running down his leg from his pocket.
I went to ask Gayle who the mystery applicant who walks the corridors of power at both the AFL and RVL could possibly be, but she was flat out – Mr Duffy was on hold and she was in the middle of a conference call with two blokes called Andy and Adrian. Plus Bernie had locked himself in the stationery cabinet again when he heard the phone ring and was calling out for her to open the door.
Monday 14 July
Looks like another typical Monday morning. Sharpie farted as he walked past Bails, so the regular Monday morning stewards meeting was cancelled by the regular Monday morning cancellation email. Looks like Bails has cancelled the meeting indefinitely until “junior” stewards start showing him more respect. He’s really taking this hard nosed stuff seriously.
Finally met up with Bernie’s gopher. Nice bloke by the name of Dale. Seems he’s an old mate of Bernie’s and he was just helping Bernie out while he’s between jobs. Starts a new gig today, apparently, but didn’t have much more to say. Hope I see him around again, he seems like a decent sort of bloke.
Dunny was furious that The Mailman had found out that Hullsy had just sent him through an email to publish as his so called “interview” in the Hun last week. He wanted to know if anyone at RVL had leaked it. Unfortunately, his campaign to stop leaks from RVL has backfired on him a bit and no one would take his calls.
Apparently Gayle had a half an hour call with Bobby Scarborough, he was doing a reference check or something. I’m a bit surprised that Bob would be doing that himself for a junior staff member. It must have been for one of the secretaries who got the flick when Bernie stormed through a couple of months back.
There’s been a whisper that the most senior person in Victorian sport is in line for the CEO’s gig down here – no names yet, but it is supposedly someone who can pull strings at the AFL (i.e got the Clothier lad over the line) and at the same time controls everything that happens at RVL. We tossed around who that could be at lunch today, but we couldn’t come up with a single name.
Might have to run it past Gayle, she seems to know everything. I think it’s her birthday, some bloke called Mark had sent her some chocolates and a bloke from New Zealand sent her some flowers. I should get her a card tomorrow.
11 July 2008 The Insider - What really goes on at RVL HQ
Mailman Exclusive: RVL Insider's weekly diary
There has been a lot of media comment of late about the leaks that I have received from all levels at Racing Victoria.
After much prolonged and delicate negotiations, I am delighted to announce that one of my “insiders” has agreed to supply me with excerpts from their diary, detailing the daily goings on at RVL HQ.
Introducing, The Insider :
G’day readers. Yeah, The Mailman has been pretty persuasive, got me on board to give the broader racing public a bit of insight into the daily mechanisations at the highest level of the thoroughbred industry – the shakers and movers who control the game.
You’ll have to forgive me if I’m occasionally a bit vague about details or some bits that go up on the website later disappear. It is just me being over cautious about getting pinged as one of The Mailman’s leaks.
Monday 7 July
Another standard Monday morning at HQ. The regular Stewards meeting this morning got cancelled again. Crammy’s still pissed that Bails got the main gig and they’re both pissed at Des for telling them to grow up.
Funny thing is that because they aren’t talking to each other, they have to do all their meeting cancellation communication by email and one of the blokes from IT set up their computers so that everything that goes out of their computers gets bcc’d to everyone else in the building. I wonder how long it will take for PWC to clue onto that as the source of the leaks?
There’s so much champagne comedy in their emails, it could keep the Spring Racing Carnivals going for the next decade.
Tuesday 8 July
Looks like the tight financial constraints that brung about the last lot of retrenchments has eased up a bit. Gayle has just sent out an email announcing a new staff member. I forgot his name but it looks like he has got a bit of a job as Bernie’s gopher. Apparently likes an ale or two so should be good for the odd bit of info down the track.
Something else is happening down at Integrity Central. The young bloke Clothier has been taking quite a few sick days since he didn't crack it for an interview for the GM Integrity gig. This afternoon, he spent ages in with Des. I hope he hasn't got the horse flu.
Wednesday 9 July
Everyone thought the fact that no horses died on the weekend would keep the Minister quiet. Couple of falls weren’t great, but when Big Bad Bustling Bernie’s hotline from the top didn’t ring on Monday or Tuesday everyone thought the heat was off. Turns out Hullsy took an extended long weekend in Queensland to study the successful banning of jumps racing at Noosa and didn’t make it back to work until this morning. Then all hell broke loose.
Bernie just hid under his desk and had Gayle tell the Minister that he had eaten a dodgy curry at lunch and was locked in an important conference in the executive bathroom, but promised to get him to call back when he was available.
Some grief at Sandown. One of the junior stewards wore a light grey suit and a beige Gleeson. Bails gave him a good talking to and advised him to get his black suit back from the dry cleaners asap. In accordance with RVL's new policy, he was given a second chance.
Thursday 10 July
Seems that the new bloke only got the job because Bernie needed someone to direct him to his office each morning from his car and then back to his car at the end of each day. It must be a bitch remembering all the stuff a CEO has to remember AND where your office is AND where you park your car.
Anyway, I’m sure Bernie will find some stuff for him to do during the day to keep him busy, just like Gary Gray always finds something to keep Bernie busy.
Just been announced young Clothier got the Integrity Services job at the AFL. At least that explains all those sick days.
Everyone had a good laugh about Dunny's item in Free Rein this morning. He wrote that it was good news that there had been no leaks about the CEO's role then proceeded to publish a leak about Greg Nicholls being a chance for the job.
I suppose he could be if Bernie gets the Moonee Valley job.
Friday 11 July
A watermark day for the Acting CEOship of Big Bad Bustling Bernie. He’s had a few big decisions to make over the last few weeks but none bigger than the one today – which one of his favourite journos is going get the freebie trip to Dubai.
Dunny will be dark if he doesn’t get the gig again, and I think he has made that quite clear, especially [deleted for legal reasons]. He didn't do his chances any good yesterday when he jumped off Bernie and suggested Greg Nicholls could be up for the CEO job. I suppose he's entitled to an each way bet.
To be honest, I think he reckons Duffy wants to give it to that bloke who used to play district cricket. He owes him one, Dunny reckons.
Could be a few sleepless nights for Bernie ahead.
I'll see you at the Valley tomorrow. Or not, depending on who I am.
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The Mailman's 2008 Report Card Winners 33.13% Placegetters 65.52%
The Boxer's 2008 Report Card Winners 19.66% Placegetters 50.52%
The Rogue's 2008 Report Card Winners 30.00% Placegetters 56.67%
The Speculator's 2008 Report Card Total winnings $2160.50 Net Profit $1160.50 (116.05%) ($1000 invested)
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