Nathan Tinkler’s bad year just keeps getting worse.
While reports of worsening conditions at the mining entrepreneur’s horse stables had surfaced over the past several weeks, Tinkler’s racing trainer took to radio on the weekend to clarify just how bad the financial situation was at his farms.
And apparently they’re pretty bad.
”I’ve gone weeks without vets, farriers, bedding and ran out of feed a number of times,” John Thompson told Sky Sports Radio on Sunday.
Thompson also alleged that Patinack Farm, the racing and breeding company, had been forced to leave its training grounds because “the owner of the property just got sick of us being late with our rent”.
It’s extremely bad timing for the accusations – Tinkler has several horses running in today’s Melbourne Cup festivities.
Several of the 500 horses were accustomed to eating feed every day, but were then made to live in smaller stables and eat grass instead. Fairfax has reported staff are continually frustrated about the poor conditions – they’ve even run out of fuel for the quad bikes.
Spokespeople for Tinkler were contacted this morning, but a reply wasn’t available before publication.
It’s just the latest embarrassment for Tinkler, and evidence of his failing finances.
Last week, CBD Energy revealed the company would take a $40.4 million loss for the year to June. Partly because of a joint venture it had with Tinkler’s building endeavours in Queensland.
CBD said in a release it was affected by a “significant change in market conditions and the reported potential financial constraints of our joint venture partner”, that led to a “considerable uncertainty that the net realisable value of either project would exceed zero”.
It’s an embarrassing string of events for the 36-year-old mining mogul, who last week said the media was on a campaign against him.
But his business dealings speak for themselves. Commodity prices have plummeted, with his 19.4% stake in Whitehaven only worth around $570 million, down from $US1.1 billion in April.
Tinkler’s company Mulsanne Resources is also appearing in court today over a share placement in Blackwood Corporation.
Two of Tinkler’s businesses in other disputes managed to reach multi-million dollar settlements.
