by Brian de Lore
Published 21 March 2019
Racing Minister Winston Peters can take a considerable amount of self-satisfaction in the knowledge that the man he appointed to review New Zealand racing almost a year ago has just been awarded the most coveted accolade in world racing.
John Messara AM was this week named as the 2019 recipient of the prestigious Longines and IFHA International Award of Merit which recognises distinguished horsemen and horsewomen for lifelong contributions to thoroughbred racing. The Award which was inaugurated in 2013 is an order to honour public figures for their outstanding contribution to the world of horse racing.
The award is both affirmation of the esteem in which Messara is held worldwide and testimony to Racing Minister Winston Peters erudite decision to engage him to review the New Zealand Racing Industry.
Messara will be honored during a ceremony in Sydney on Thursday, 11 April, in advance of the $4 million Gr. 1 Longines Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick the following Saturday in which Winx is scheduled to contest the race as the final start of her stellar career.
“It’s an honour to receive recognition from one’s international peers,” Messara told The Informant this week. “My involvement in the industry has been a labour of love.”
The Award concept between Swiss watchmaker Longines and the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) was conjointly created in 2013 to honour public figures for their outstanding contribution to the world of horse racing
Messara is the first Australian and only the second person from the Southern Hemisphere to receive the award. Previous winners include the Magnier family and trainer Aidan O’Brien, the driving forces behind Coolmore and the Ballydoyle Racing Stable in Ireland, legendary Japanese jockey Yutaka Take and, the Romanet family who are long-renowned leaders in both the French and international world of horseracing.
Leading Irish trainer Jim Bolger was also a recipient as well as owner-breeder Alec Head – the past champion trainer and patriarch of prominent stud farm Haras du Quesnay. Seth Hancock of historic Claiborne Farm in America won it as did the late Marcel Zarour Atanacio, former chairman of the South American organization for the promotion of Thoroughbreds (OSAF).
It’s a star-studded list of previous recipients, but Messara is a worthy winner after so many crowning achievements in Australia over some 35 years from which he is identified as the single person most responsible for elevating the Australian industry to its current high standing in the thoroughbred world.
The greatest Messara achievement was taking prizemoney levels in NSW from $118 million to $203 million per annum during his five years as Chairman of Racing NSW. But his long career as an administrator has seen him overhaul taxation, integrity, governance, initiate and attract investment for infrastructure and industry modernisation, and the creation of The Championships which has reinvigorated the Sydney Autumn Carnival.
Messara made huge inroads in raising the ethics of the racing industry. He made substantial improvements in the areas of surveillance, drug detection, information sharing with Australian Crime Commission, introducing funding for detection of gene doping, a total ban on anabolic steroids and overhauling the rules including the introduction of the secret commissions rule.
He was also the Chairman of Racing Australia for three years from 2014 and in 2008 was awarded the honour of a Member of the Order of Australia.
