Prominent journalist and commentator Peter FitzSimons has criticsed incoming NRL commissioner Peter V'landys for his response to last week's racing controversy.
FitzSimons launched his attack during a discussion about the ABC's investigation into the slaughter of Australian race horses on Channel Nine's Sports Sunday show.
The bombshell investigation into the treatment of retired race horses rocked Australian racing on the eve of the spring carnival.
A fired-up FitzSimons hit out at V'landys over the latter's reaction to the revelations.
"Peter V'landys, CEO of Racing New South Wales. Before the broadcast yesterday, you were on Channel 10 saying 'we're proud of our animal welfare program, how we re-home our horses,'" FitzSimons said.
"Mate, what would it take before you're not proud of it?
"He was asked on 7:30 Report how many go to the abbattior, and he said none.
"Four thousand. Four thousand of them go to those abbattiors and are treated in the most appalling fashion."
In the wake of utter shocking revelations surrounding Horse Racing, is its very existence under threat?
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FitzSimons continued, questioning whether V'landys could run the NRL and horse racing.
"Peter V'landys, I'm told, is a very good operator. But what he's facing is an existential threat," he said.
"It needs not just his fulltime input, it needs his double-time input.
"Having dual roles with the NRL right now - when the annual harvest of atrocities comes in from the summer of NRL, do you want your racing guy dealing with that?
"Or do you want a guy full time going across every level and making your regulations actually count for something?"
Racing insider Richard Freedman defended V'landys, saying the racing boss had made some significant changes.
"In Peter's defence, he's the first one to have instituted some rules and regulations, which we had none of five years ago," Freedman said.
"And most horses are re-homed. The vast majority are.
"Peter was asked that question before he'd seen the vision, before anything had been given to him, so he said 'no, we don't allow it.'
"Peter now would say 'they are going there and we've gotta stop this.'
"But I can tell you he will not rest now until we fix this."
