A 24-year-old whose father successfully sued the Melbourne Racing Club is contesting an election to join the board, a week after another candidate pulled out over a lack of confidence in the process.
This year will be the first time the MRC, besieged by upheaval in recent years, has gone to the polls since ex-chairman John Kanga dramatically altered the make-up and future direction of the club by overthrowing the board in September 2024.
Fergus Ewart is standing against three sitting MRC board members ā Caitrin Kelly, Belinda Meyers and Robyn Gray ā on a platform of growing membership and āfinancial responsibility and transparencyā.
But Justin OāKane, a former MRC committee member, has withdrawn his nomination for this yearās election a day after a meeting with the clubās nomination, remuneration and governance subcommittee.
The MRC is a billion-dollar sporting club that governs Caulfield, Sandown and Mornington racecourses as well as operating 15 poker machine venues that made a $46 million profit last financial year.
If successful, Ewart would become the youngest board member of any of Melbourneās three metropolitan race clubs – the MRC, the Victoria Racing Club and Moonee Valley Racing Club.
In 2009, Ewartās father, Alistair, launched legal action in the County Court against the MRC, The Age reported at the time.
He claimed the club had repudiated a sponsorship deal after he was involved in a verbal stoush with the clubās chief executive Warran Brown outside the Caulfield Racecourse committee room.
The argument broke out after Brown and MRC staff believed Ewart and his wife abused club privileges by bringing four āunticketedā guests into the committee room, and were seen in the āwinnersā roomā without entitlement.
The fallout ended a 14-year partnership between the MRC and Ewartās business, Winning Edge Presentations ā a trophy, awards and merchandise company ā and led to legal action.
County Court judge Graham Anderson ordered the MRC to pay Ewartās company damages, including loss of profit and marketing rights.
Fergus Ewart works in sales and promotions for his fatherās company.
āI have not heard anything about this apart from that he won,ā Ewart told The Age.
āThe MRC has never brought this up, and I donāt know anything about the case.ā
MRC chairman Cameron Fisher said Ewart was seven when his father took action against the club and āit would have been unfair to impede his nomination on the basis of a matter involving his father almost two decades agoā.
In his candidate statement, Ewart said he had been a member of the MRC since 2017 and is also a committee member of the Tatura Racing Club.
An owner and breeder, Ewart also revealed he developed a sports marketing business while working for the Kingās College Student Union in London in 2024.
OāKane was on the former MRC committee that supported the rezoning of Sandown Racecourse for potential housing development ā a direction stopped by Kanga ā and poured $160 million into redeveloping Caulfield Racecourse. He was voted off the board in 2023, replaced by Kelly.
OāKane announced he was dropping out of the current election race to independent returning officer Tim Jones of VoteCorp, in an email seen by The Age.
The email was sent a day after last Mondayās meeting with the subcommittee, which consisted of Fisher, vice-chairman and racing powerbroker Jonathan Munz and board member Stephen Foster, and was attended by Jones and the clubās general counsel Sam Constantinou.
In the email, OāKane said he had no issue with following the compulsory pre-election screening process, but claimed he was not given procedural fairness.
āLittle meaningful attention was given to my capabilities, the issues affecting members or the contribution I proposed to make,ā OāKaneās email said. āThe meeting did not provide a fair or balanced assessment of my candidacy.
Jones told The Age the meeting had been āprocedurally correctā, but could not comment on what was said.
OāKane also lodged a complaint with Racing Victoriaās participant protection manager. OāKane declined to comment when contacted by The Age.
A Racing Victoria spokesperson said they did not comment on whether they āhave or havenāt received complaintsā.
Fisher said the MRC was ācommitted to a fair and transparent election processā.
āMr OāKane was free to run as a candidate, and it was his decision to withdraw,ā Fisher said in a statement to The Age.
In his email to Jones, OāKane wrote that his āwithdrawal is a direct consequence of how the interview was conductedā and it should not ābe interpreted as accepting any allegationā.
OāKane is the second prospective board member to pull out of an MRC election process in the past year.
Last September, candidate Peter Brown withdrew from the election process when the committee āheavily redactedā his statement to members, meaning Kanga, Alison Saville and Frank Polio were returned unopposed.
But the upheaval goes back further than that.
In their candidate statements released to members on Friday, they highlighted decisions made by Kanga before they joined the board ā decisions they said they were proud to have helped drive and deliver, such as saving racing at Sandown and moving the Caulfield mounting yard.
The MRC said Meyersā and Grayās statements accurately reflected the role they played in the Save Our MRC campaign to secure racing at Sandown and returning the mounting yard to its original position.
āBelinda and Robyn are entitled to be proud of the contribution they made to delivering those outcomes for members,ā the MRC said.
Kanga resigned in September last year after questions from The Age, and was replaced on the board by Munz ā a casual vacancy that is not voted on by the clubās 15,000 members.
The billionaire powerbroker is also chairman of the Thoroughbred Racehorse Owners Association and is widely considered one of the most influential voices in Victorian racing.
He recently drove an unsuccessful MRC bid to merge with Moonee Valley, which would have shut down the Valleyās $220 million redevelopment.
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