Lachlan McKenzie has been awarded a life membership to the Ballarat Turf Club on his final day as its chief executive.
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Ballarat Turf Club chairman Brad Fisher presented the life member badge to Mr McKenzie in the committee room after lunch during Ballarat Cup Day, making him the seventh club life member.
"I was absolutely so surprised," Mr McKenzie said speaking to The Courier in his office at the track on Saturday.
"Although I have been at the club for eight and a half years you expect these things for those who have been there a lot longer, so that was a great thrill.
"I am just so proud that the committee has acknowledged the work we have done here and I am so proud about what we have been able to achieve.
"I was pretty emotional about it when they made the announcement. It is not often I am lost for words but I was. It is a terrific thrill and I am very proud."
Today is Mr McKenzie's final day as chief executive of the Ballarat Turf Club, a position he has held for the last eight and a half years.
There has been some challenges but all in all it has been a great chapter of my life and something I will treasure forever.
- Lachlan McKenzie, outgoing Ballarat Turf Club CEO
Mr Fisher spoke of the Ballarat Turf Club's achievements under Mr McKenzie's leadership before presenting him with the life membership, including financial performance, the growth in the club's training centre and infrastructure and capital works.
A new $9.6 million synthetic track was built at the Ballarat Turf Club this year. New stabling facilities and training tracks have also been established.
"We have had some major capital works here, but it is not just the capital projects that is important it is the other things like looking after our members, looking after our staff and looking after the horses," Mr McKenzie said.
Mr McKenzie has a long family history in racing. His grandfather Mitchell McKenzie is a life member of Moonee Valley Racing Club and has a race run in his name.
"My father also had a love of racing and probably breeding as much as racing, not so much the punting or the social side, more so the horses," Mr McKenzie said.
"I was brought up on horseback, went to pony club and rode track work. When I was at uni I was working stables and training a few horses myself. I have always been heavily involved pretty much my whole life."
Mr McKenzie has also had an involvement in agribusiness throughout his career and will return to this focus after he finishes work with the Ballarat Turf Club.
The Courier asked Mr McKenzie what it was about racing he loved.
"Racing has been put through the ringer recently with some of the negative press on the animal welfare issues and quite rightly it is being held to account. I am so pleased because although it is a tough time racing will come out better for it in the future," he said.
"As much as there are difficult things one of the wonderful things about racing is the animals are loved so much by so many people. I love horses. And the competition is so fiercely competitive yet there is this strong, close connection between the trainers.
"Between all the trainers at the Ballarat Turf Club, there is this competitive tension, but they are friends and support each other and it is like a big family here. I guess that is what I have loved the most when I have been here, but I think it is the horses themselves that I love the most."
When asked about his fondest memories during his time as chief executive, Mr McKenzie referred to friendships made, the day 3000 people turned out to see Prince of Penzance paraded on Sturt Street, and when jumps rider Ruby Walsh flew from Ireland to ride Bashboy for his third grand national steeplechase win in Ballarat.
"I have never felt an atmosphere of sheer appreciation of the rider and the horse as I did that day," he said.
You can listen to The Courier's full interview with Lachlan McKenzie below.
Looking forward, Mr McKenzie said the future of the Ballarat Turf Club was strong, with a new 'exceptional' chief executive in Belinda Glass and three top horse trainers moving to Ballarat from Caulfield and South Australia.
"A lot of racing clubs invest in non-racing activity, whether that be pokies machines or hotels or any other non-racing activity to generate revenue. The Ballarat Turf Club's core business is horses," he said.
"We used to own the Golf Club Hotel and in my first six months in my tenure as CEO I convinced the committee it needed to be sold, so we offloaded the poker machines and the pub just to concentrate on horse training and horse related activity.
"I think that is why it has really propelled the club forward in terms of the size and the scale of the training. Horse activity is what we care about - racing and training."
For Mr McKenzie, life membership means a responsibility to continue to support the Ballarat Turf Club in every way he can.
"I have loved my time here. There has been some challenges but all in all it has been a great chapter of my life and something I will treasure forever," he said.
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