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By Ray Hickson

When you’ve learned from the best there’s no reason for Tom Moxon, Racing NSW’s new chairman of stewards, to want to reinvent the wheel.

But what his appointment last month does is establish a youthful face to front the stewards panel and move racing integrity forward.

Moxon stepped into the role succeeding Steve Railton, who remains on the panel, and he said he’s indebted to the previous chairs who have provided him with the best platform possible to step into a role he’s immensely proud to be taking on.

“I’m following in behind Ray Murrihy, Marc Van Gestel and Steve Railton and for many years to come they are going to be regarded as the best to have ever done it,’’ Moxon said.

Tom Moxon, Racing NSW's Chairman of Stewards. (Pic: Bradley Photos).

“It would be silly for me to come in and think I’m going to drastically change how we approach the role.

“In being the chairman, to build a team around me that’s going to progress the department even further is something I’m looking forward to doing.

“It can be a legacy of a chairman to build a team that is regarded as a leader for setting the standards for integrity.

“To do it when I’ve just turned 40 is a great achievement, it’s been a lot of hard work and commitment and it’s been particularly difficult the last eight years now Lucy and I have a young family.

“It’s a role I’m going to give 100 per cent to, understanding the responsibility of the position of being chairman of stewards at Racing NSW.

“It can be a difficult job when you’ve got to penalise people, suspend people, it’s a tough position to be in. But it’s an important position to be in to ensure that everyone has confidence in the product and the industry.”

Like a lot of people who make racing their career, Tom Moxon grew up around horse racing and that was largely thanks to his grandfather Reg Manvell.

While he was the baker in Nundle, near Tamworth, he was also and enthusiastic racehorse owner and a young Tom was bitten by that bug.

“He was the first one to introduce me to horse racing and it just grew from there,’’ he said.

“When the horses weren’t in training they were spelling at his property and when they were in training during the holidays we’d go and watch them race at venues around the Hunter & North West.

“I was at the races one day with my grandfather and one of his friends, Stan Lockwood, and he spoke to the chief steward at Tamworth at the time to ask him did he take on young stewards.

“There were no positions at the time but six months later I got the call that there was an opportunity if I wanted to move up. I jumped at it.”

Moxon served his first 12 months from December 2003 as a race day steward in Tamworth before a position opened up for a cadet on the Sydney panel under Ray Murrihy.

It’s common practice for cadets to spend a period of time in Sydney then take positions on country panels to further their experience and Moxon spent nine months in Dubbo and 18 months in Wagga Wagga – the latter taking in the EI outbreak of 2008.

By later that year he’d returned to the Sydney and was part of a panel stacked with experience, and now he’s the one guiding the next generation of stewards

“For me to have that firsthand experience and being involved directly in the running and control of racing is something even before I started that was of some interest,’’ he said.

“When you get involved in horse racing the first thing you think of is being a jockey but that was never going to be my path.

“It’s a younger panel than what it has been in years before, compared to when I first started.

“In saying that while some of the team are young in age they have a number of years of experience, starting in their roles straight out of school as I did.

“And there’s none better than Steve, and for the young guys and girls to learn from him is invaluable for them, and for me also.

Tom Moxon might bring a younger face to the role of Chairman of Stewards but he has over 20 years of experience. (Pic: Bradley Photos).

“The years of experience that we’ve got puts us in a good position moving forward, that we’re going to continue setting the standard when it comes to integrity in racing.”

Moxon said it’s a great support to have Steve Railton remain with Racing NSW in a senior capacity which includes officiating race meetings remotely via the new stewards Control Room at Royal Randwick.

From there Railton will have access to the stewards Hawkeye video system and be part of stewards panels, as both a mentor and an active steward, across NSW.

“We’re in a fortunate position that Steve Railton is continuing on as a senior steward,’’ Moxon said.

“He’ll provide great mentorship to the youngster stewards that are based around the regional areas.

“In that Control Room we can observe the stewards inquiries, both audio and visually, having access to the Hawkeye system independently from the control room as well as being able to view the Hawkeye the stewards are using at the venue.

“The person who is officiating from the control room will form part of the stewards panel on that day for the meeting. They are a voting member of the panel, but just remotely.”

Having a voting member of a stewards panel operating in such a way is an innovative step forward as it takes advantage of technology to strengthen the integrity of racing around the state.

*This article originally appeared in the July 2025 edition of the Racing NSW magazine

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