A Racing NSW-appointed administrator at the Australian Turf Club has written to its more than 11,000 members outlining a litany of problems with the way the organisation has been run.

Morgan Kelly, of EY-Parthenon, was installed by the sport’s controlling body earlier this month after a six-month legal battle with the club, which operates Sydney’s four metropolitan racecourses.

The ATC had fought to stop the appointment of an administrator after Racing NSW raised concerns about the club’s financial management and corporate governance but lost out when the NSW Court of Appeal ruled in the regulator’s favour last month.

Kelly on Thursday shared early findings from his review of operations with members, highlighting a range of issues.

He said his work had found many of the club’s difficulties traced back to the lack of a clear strategic focus for the ATC and included:

• Major decisions being constrained by a short-term rather than long-term focus;

• Reactive rather than proactive capital management and allocation decisions;

• A lack of control measures, resulting in incidences of theft and;

• Poor commercial returns due to a lack of accountability on expenditure.

“Our review has also identified the ATC’s lack of strategic and commercial focus has resulted in maintenance of facilities being de-prioritised. This is something we expect many members have noticed over recent years,” Kelly wrote.

“There are also a range of historic maintenance issues that need to be worked through urgently.”

This masthead revealed in May that an ATC employee had been arrested for stealing $22,000 in cash from a safe at Royal Randwick racecourse.

Club management had earlier in the year investigated the alleged theft of beer, wine and food from racecourse fridges and cold rooms by some staff members.

The ATC initially staved off Racing NSW’s efforts to put an administrator in place after taking the Peter V’landys-led organisation to the Supreme Court, rejecting the need for intervention at the asset-rich club.

But Racing NSW’s subsequent win in a higher court paved the way for Kelly to be given over-arching powers.

ATC chairman Tim Hale and fellow directors Caroline Searcy and Bernie Brookes have been included on an advisory committee “to assist and support the administrator in carrying out his role” - fellow board members Annette English and David McGrath were left off it - but it is Kelly calling the shots.

He told members he would develop a strategy to ensure future necessary repairs to facilities were budgeted and planned for ahead of time and that the club could afford to maintain them.

The ATC’s members last year voted down a controversial proposal to sell Rosehill Gardens racecourse for $5 billion in a deal that would have created a mini-city of 25,000 homes.

V’landys is on four months long-service leave from Racing NSW while he serves as interim chief executive officer of the National Rugby League. His deputy Graeme Hinton is acting CEO in his absence.