24.01.11
The Daily Telegraph
It used to be you needed a Point Piper or Darling Point upbringing to run the AJC, but in 2011 the boys from the suburbs are taking over.
John Cornish, the chairman of the newly merged AJC-STC race club, was born and raised in Liverpool. Michael Crismale, the vice-chairman, is a product of Canterbury. And Darren Pearce, the CEO, spent his youth running around the football fields of Cambridge Park in the outer west.
The trio do boast trendier current addresses, but it is good to see ability rather than breeding is now the credential required to run racing.
A leading businessman described the make-up of the new board to me as "world-class" at Rosehill on Saturday and I am excited to look at the way forward and what should be achieved.
There will be no excuses for failure.
A lot of emotion seems to have taken over among STC members regarding the status of their club and it has run through to the appointment of Darren Pearce over the STC CEO Michael Kenny for the senior executive position with the new club.
In case you don't read balance sheets, all STC members should note the club has lost money in each of the past two years and the club carries a large debt that needs to be serviced.
Both Kenny and Bill Picken, the club chairman, with all of the facts before them, unselfishly voted in favour of the merger.
Like everybody in racing I feel for Kenny, one of the most decent blokes I have had the pleasure of meeting in my racing life.
However, both he and Pearce made submissions to the new board for the CEO position and the nine-member board voted in favour of Pearce.
Don't underrate Pearce.
He is young, hard-working and with the flair to make a big impact.
Pictured: Suburban boys - Officials (L-R) Chairman John Cornish, Vice Chairman Michael Crismale and CEO Darren Pearce, the new men in charge following the merger of the AJC and the STC racing clubs.
Picture: Mark Evans Source: The Daily Telegraph