Ambassadors

The Victoria Racing Club is delighted to have the support from a number of Australian racing and sports most highly regarded personalities who made guest speaking appearances at networking sessions at the international dinners and national networking events.

Bruce McAvaney OAM

Described as "The Master Sportscaster", Bruce McAvaney OAM is a trusted sports broadcaster in Australia. Bruce started his career in radio in 1976 and moved across to television two years later.

He has since gone on to host and commentate nearly every mainstream sporting event around the world. This includes the winter and summer Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, Melbourne Cup Carnival, Australian Open, Australian Masters Golf, World Athletic Championships just to name a few.

He is synonymous with thoroughbred racing and the Melbourne Cup Carnival and plays a leading role as host and commentator during the Carnival. Bruce McAvaney OAM has won numerous media awards and is a Channel 7 media and sports personality.

past ambassadors

JB (Bart) Cummings AM

Bart Cummings AM sobriquet is "The Cups King" and rightly so. He has won Australia's greatest race, the Melbourne Cup a record 11 times.

The quietest of all turf achievers, Bart Cummings became a licensed trainer in 1953. He bought his first yearling in 1958, and he won his first feature race, the South Australian Derby, in that same year. Ever since, he has proceeded to smash all records with 244 Group One victories to his name. Bart's reputation is world renowned for his timely precision with a racehorse. Bart is applying the same zest to winning his 12th Emirates Melbourne Cup as he did to winning his first.

Lee Freedman

Lee Freedman, trained his first winner in 1983 and had his first major success in 1986. During a stellar 22 year career, he is only the third trainer to ever achieve 100+ Group One winners and the youngest trainer to be inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame. Lee's record boasts an incredible 4 Melbourne Cups, 4 Caulfield Cups, 4 Golden Slippers (in a row), countless other feature races including Derby's and Oaks and more than 3,000 winners.

In 2005, he prepared super mare Makybe Diva for her third Emirates Melbourne Cup win in a row, and thus creating Cup history. In June 2007 his champion mare Miss Andretti blitzed her rivals to win the King's Stand Stakes (1000 metres) at Royal Ascot.