Melbourne Racing Club (MRC) is one of three metropolitan horse racing clubs in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and is one of the largest horseracing Clubs in Australia, with 13,000 members. The MRC hosts weekly race meetings across its three premier racecourses – Caulfield, Mornington Racing Club and Ladbrokes Park. The MRC also operates a profitable event and functions business hosting a variety of functions for the community in conjunction with racing-related events. Due to the highly successful management of the MRC, the business has diversified to include 14 hospitality venues known collectively as Pegasus Leisure Group (PLG). In addition, the property function of the MRC announced in 2019 its $300m vision for Caulfield to help guide and inform future development activities and ensure the continued success of the venue for generations to come. Under their plans, a complete repositioning and redevelopment of the site will be undertaken to further cement Caulfield as a world-class racing, event and recreational destination for members, participants, guests and the local community.

The MRC is proud of the culture for which the Purpose, Vision and Values are the foundation. The MRC culture is collaborative and highly focused on enabling employees to achieve. Open communication across all levels of the organisation is a revered strength. The MRC is also strongly committed to promoting from within wherever possible, and there is strong evidence of multiple promotions across the organisation to support this commitment to career development.

Leadership development at the MRC is delivered primarily under the MRC DRIVE Development framework, a comprehensive leadership development program based on purpose-driven leadership. This program’s effectiveness is understood to contribute to the number of internal promotions noted above significantly. The wider online training program provided to the employee group has been recognised by the achievement of a Gold Award for Best Learning & Development Project: Compliance Training as part of the LearnX Awards 2021. Through effective performance reviews and an ongoing feedback model, the MRC is committed to understanding the needs of its people and driving their development through a highly engaged workforce. A detailed process has been undertaken for Engagement, including education sessions for leaders on the purpose and importance of the Engagement survey process, how they can utilise the results to strengthen their team’s performance and how they can action plan with their team to further improve the results over time.

New and ongoing initiatives at the MRC continue to show a dedication to meeting the workforce’s needs through recognising Safety as an integral part of every activity performed and new Diversity and Inclusion Strategies to support employees better. The MRC’s commitment to putting people at the centre of everything they do is clear.

For information about Melbourne Racing Club, visit mrc.net.au