Mark Latham faces another Rosehill humiliation

For a place that, let’s be honest, rarely crosses the mind of most Sydneysiders, Rosehill racecourse is punching above its weight in the Harbour City’s news cycles of late.

Responsibility for that partly lay with Chris Minns’ well-intentioned plan to buy the site for $5 billion and build 25,000 new homes, a move rejected by most Australian Turf Club members keen to stick a middle finger up at the premier and Peter V’landys.

The botched deal was the subject of many a deranged tirade from NSW upper house MP Mark Latham, one of its loudest opponents, for whom Rosehill has been the site of many a recent humiliation. On the day of the Rosehill vote, Latham separated from former girlfriend Nathalie Matthews, who later made a series of allegations of abuse against the former Labor leader. Latham has denied Matthews’ claims.

Rosehill was also the site of an earlier embarrassing incident for Latham, who in April launched into an expletive-laden rant against the ATC’s head of corporate affairs Steve McMahon, a friend of Minns, when the two crossed paths in the members area.

The ATC slapped Latham with a 12-month good behaviour bond, while the MP later rage-quit the club.

Racing NSW drafted in former Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission boss Michael Phelan to conduct its own investigation into the incident. This week, they charged Latham in connection with abusing officials.

“Some people have taken their defeat at Rosehill really hard,” Latham sniggered on X, with a picture of an email from the regulator’s operations manager – integrity, Michael Cleaver, relating to “charges issued by Racing NSW stewards”.

Latham could face penalties in the form of a fine, or at the most severe, being “warned off”, which would leave the upper house rogue banned from racetracks, unable to have a punt and restricted from ownership of a horse.

It’s just another legal battle for Latham, who seems to relish the attention rather than feel any sense of shame. On Wednesday, he’s set to give evidence before the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal to defend an alleged unlawful homosexual discrimination and sexual harassment case brought by Sydney MP Alex Greenwich.

Another good earner for his lawyer Zali Burrows, also representing Bruce Lehrmann in his various legal troubles.

Off to the races

As for Rosehill, the track this week lost the $10 million Golden Eagle to Royal Randwick, Racing NSW pointing to falling crowds as a reason for the move. Now, the $5 million Golden Slipper, held at Rosehill and once Sydney’s biggest race before V’landys created the Everest juggernaut, is struggling to find a sponsor.

Luxury watch manufacturer Longines ended its multimillion-dollar deal with the ATC in 2023. TAB filled in on sponsorship duties in 2024 for a year.

The ATC has posted on LinkedIn, spruiking a “rare and exciting opportunity” to partner with the Golden Slipper. But CBD hears the success of the Everest has made selling other races a challenge, and so far, efforts to find a high-end sponsor like Longines have failed.

If only there were some other way for the ATC to raise a bit of cash? Say a big, $5 billion handout from the government …

Jim bros

In the months since Anthony Albanese’s landslide election win, dozens of Labor staff have left politics behind and traded the Canberra bubble for a regular social life.

But as is tradition after any election, the door revolves the other way too. The latest signing for the government is ABC veteran Matt Brown, a foreign correspondent whose career of nearly 30 years with the public broadcaster took him to Indonesia and the Middle East.

Brown has traded Beirut for Brisbane and is about to start a new gig in Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ media team, CBD hears. Brown isn’t the first Aunty alum to join Team Jim. In 2023, this column reported Chalmers had hired former ABC “golden boy” Nick Hayden, the one-time head of entertainment with a hand in hit shows such as Spicks and Specks, as a speechwriter.

That gig just lasted a year before Hayden jumped across the aisle to join teal bankrollers Climate 200 as their head of media and communications. Hopefully Brown is more of a True Believer.

Drop it like it’s hot

Generation X scored a rare win when it was confirmed that US rapper Snoop Dogg would perform at this year’s AFL grand final. The Age journalist Sam McClure on Tuesday reported a grand final audience with Kylie Minogue was not to be. It will be an afternoon opening bounce again this year, you see, and the Queen of Pop has made it clear in the past she only wanted to perform at night.

CBD was chuffed to learn that AFL boss Andrew Dillon’s favourite Snoop song is Gin and Juice, a 1993 hit with a few rather risque lyrics that might send some rushing for their smelling salts. The gig is expected to net Snoop millions, with Dillon confirming he’ll be paid about the same as Katy Perry was last year and would perform in a “family friendly” way.

Snoop hasn’t always been welcome in Australia. Thanks to some unsavoury criminal history, he was banned from the country on character grounds, a decision later reversed.

Don’t worry about another Novak Djokovic-style quick eviction: the Dogg last toured here in 2023 and government sources expect no problems with his visa.

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