Flemington

Amanda Elliott served as Victoria Racing Club Chairman from February 2017 (Acting Chairman from late 2016) until her retirement, under the rules of the Club, in December 2020. She was also the first woman to hold office as Vice Chairman, serving in that role for five years from 2011. Amanda Elliott was only the second woman to be elected to the Committee of the VRC, in 2002. Four years later the Committee was reconstituted as the VRC Board. That meant she devoted a total of eighteen years of service to the Club. Amanda Elliott has often spoken of the debt of gratitude she - and all who love Flemington and the sport of racing in Australia - owed to those who held the office of Chairman before her, even the dogmatic L.K.S. Mackinnon. “We stand on the shoulders of giants,” she is apt to quote, and she means it. In an interesting coincidence on Mackinnon Stakes Day, Lauchlan Mackinnon once owned and operated Chatsworth Park, near Nagambie, as a stud far - the property acquired from later owners in 1950 by Amanda’s parents, Ian and Rowena Bayles. Chatsworth Park was her childhood home. Her parents instilled in Amanda a sense of duty, which had a long family tradition stretching back to great-grandfather William Bayles, a Mayor of Melbourne in the 1860s. Her maternal grandfather was an Admiral in the Royal Navy. Her father Ian rarely spoke of his own service as a young pilot (later Wing Commander) in World War 2, flying in combat in the Battle of Britain and in Bengal and Burma with the Royal Air Force - bravery that earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross. With his interest in country racing, notably at Seymour near Chatsworth Park, Ian Bayles joined the VRC Committee in 1978, serving for thirteen years, three as Vice Chairman. It was particularly moving for Amanda to fill her late father’s office herself in 2011. Last year, as Amanda Elliott stepped down as Chairman, her achievements were praised by many who had worked with her. Foremost for mention in all tributes was her close involvement in the concept and delivery of the superb Club Stand, opened in spring 2018. She always emphasised the teamwork involved in this huge project, but in the words of Rod Fitzroy - a distinguished predecessor “THE AMANDA ELLIOTT” 2021