Many in the racing industry are wondering how the Tasmanian based former Asian Racing Journal columnist Bren O’Brien has managed to fund his immediately prodigious start-up racing website the straight.com.au, and how he has obtained the funds to employ and pay a suite of staff that includes racing journalists, website designers, accountants, and admin workers.
The fact that there is mention of advertisers, commercial partners and investors in the purportedly open and transparent editorial policy of thestraight.com but no disclosure of who these financial backers actually are has only heightened the speculation in the industry that the website may be being funded by one or more well connected leading NSW-based players in the lucrative thoroughbred breeding industry eager to see the resurrection of a fully functional Racing Australia, whose goal is to damage Racing NSW in general, and its hyper energetic CEO Peter V’Landys in particular.
A company search of the website’s owner The Straight Media Pty Ltd reveals nothing other than that is a $1.oo company registered on the 8th of November 2023, with its sole shareholder, director and company secretary being Brendan (Bren) O’Brien of New Town, Tasmania, but what is of great interest is that despite the registered address and principal place of address of the proprietary company also being located in the inner city suburb of Hobart 4km from that town’s CBD, it was actually for reasons unknown registered in New South Wales.
A domain owner search also reveals nothing more than thestraight.com.au website was registered on the 23/11/23 and is owned by the sole trader Brendan O’Brien.
Further lending weight to the speculation about The Straight’s financial backer being one or more NSW based breeders however is the Governing Law statement contained in the website’s Terms and Conditions reproduced below:
8. Governing Law
8.1. The laws of the State of New South Wales, Australia govern these Terms and Conditions and any agreement formed under them. You and The Straight irrevocably and unconditionally submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of the State of New South Wales, Australia.
Why would a Tasmanian based company operating out of Hobart be governed exclusively by the laws of NSW and submit to the courts of that State jurisdiction rather than its own?
It’s a question that needs to be answered, as is that of how The Straight seems able to obtain so much member only information from inside the walls of the Australian Turf Club, a fact lending further weight to the suspicion that it may be funded by anti-Vlandys forces from within the NSW racing industry rather than obvious likely suspects from without.
It may simply be that thestraight.com.au is a start-up venture funded directly from O’Brien’s coffers, but given the absence of any advertisers on the site and the statements about commercial partners and investors published on the site, coupled with the presumably high costs of engaging the highly respected Warwick Barr, Jessica Owers and others as staff writers, makes one wonder how deep the website owners pockets are without external financial support.
We have contacted thestraight.com in an attempt to seek clarity about the issue of the website’s funding, and will publish the company’s reply if and when received.
Dear Bren
I am curious about the identity of the advertisers, commercial partners and investor referenced on your website thestraight.com.au.
No information is provided on your site as to who exactly these people or entities are, and there appears to be no available information available in any publicly discoverable records as to same.
For the benefit of the myriad of racing industry participants and interested fans of the sport who read peterprofit.com, would you please advise the names of the individuals or identities – if any – that have funded the establishment and setup, and/or are currently funding the ongoing operational costs of thestraight.com.au.
Please note that your reply is for publication on peterprofit.com, as is the content of this contact request.
Warm regards
Archie Butterfly
Racing writer, sportsman, lover of his wife, and raconteur