The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, has been labelled a "bully" by the horseracing industry for saying it has no control over Randwick Racecourse and that World Youth Day will take place there no matter what.Despite delays caused by the equine influenza outbreak and negotiations between the NSW Government and the Australian Jockey Club over the use of the site, Cardinal Pell categorically stated on Wednesday that there was no alternative to Randwick.
"We have no contingency plans. We will be going to Randwick and the racing community doesn't control Randwick. The course is owned by the Government and the NSW Government has assured us that the venue will be available for us," Cardinal Pell said.
His comments enraged the Randwick Trainers Association, which insisted it had legal rights over the racecourse and the staging of the event at Randwick next July was not set in stone.
The association says it will cost more than $45 million to move Randwick's 700 horses before the event, Catholicism's biggest youth gathering.
It also fears that the track will have deteriorated significantly before next year's Spring Carnival after having hundreds of thousands of people on the site, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
"That bloke that came out with that comment, he's just on another planet," the association's vice-president, John O'Shea, said of Cardinal Pell.
Mr O'Shea, who himself is a catholic, said trainers, were the legal tenants of the course because they had signed leases with the Australian Jockey Club, which in turn had a lease with the Government.
"The bottom line is this guy Pell is a bully and he is trying to bully us like he bullies his own constituents, ie, the Catholic priests. We are not going to be bullied like that, mate, I'll tell you that."
The president of the association, Anthony Cummins, and Racing NSW's chief executive, Peter V'Landys, echoed Mr O'Shea.
Mr Cummins said: "[Cardinal Pell] is not interested in the hardship that the people at Randwick are undergoing … If His Holiness had any idea at all about what is happening here, he would not allow it."
A spokesman for World Youth Day, Jim Hanna, said organisers had tried to accommodate the needs of trainers by revising the event's construction schedule so that horses would only need to be moved for several days, rather than 10 weeks, as planned.
"We have adjusted the plans several times already to take into account their concerns. That is not the behaviour of a bully," he said.
A spokesman for John Watkins, the minister for World Youth Day, said the Government had consistently stated the event would be at Randwick.
He said the racecourse was held in trust for specified public purposes and the trustees were appointed by the Government.
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