The whole matter of Racing NSW versus the world over the Chris Munce episode was one of the talking points of last week for international visitors.
Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges took the occasion to speak to foreign media, especially Australian media, in order to lay out the story step by step last Friday.
Significantly, that happened simultaneously with the naming of a new Australian Racing Board chairman, Bob Bentley, and the day following the naming of a new board for Racing NSW.
Despite sympathy for Munce in Australia for having been to jail, there did not appear to be much support among racing officials from Down Under for the step taken by Peter V'Landys at Racing NSW to licence the jockey and throw the now well-known Article 10 of the International Agreement on Racing And Breeding in the trash.
The words 'death wish' were used to describe the move by one very senior Australian administrator.
The opinion of the new board at Racing NSW will now be important in deciding whether V'Landys did overstep the mark in not reciprocating all penalties issued by Hong Kong stewards, or perhaps like previous boards at Racing NSW it will be asleep at the wheel and allow V'Landys to run everything as he sees fit.
