The NSW government is being accused of being slack when it comes to driving major Sydney events.

The boss of Racing New South Wales Peter V’landys says the state government has a “can’t do” attitude when it comes to promoting major sporting events.

Mr V’landys, the mastermind behind the world’s richest turf race, tells Ray Hadley “Sydney’s got to get behind The Everest because why are we consuming all the Melbourne product? Why do we celebrate interstate events?”

“35 per cent of the crowd at Flemington on Melbourne Cup day comes from New South Wales,” says Mr V’landys.

“It’s about time that we got proactive and started bring events into New South Wales, promoting NSW, promoting Sydney.”

Click PLAY below to listen to the full interview

Racing NSW has pitched a plan to drape The Everest horse colours off the side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge to promote the homegrown race but is still waiting on government approval.

“We wanted to do a promotion on the bridge, which would get international publicity and drive tourism into New South Wales,” says Mr V’landys.

“But government red tape and bureaucracy gave us 50 reasons why they couldn’t do it and no reasons why they can do it.

“We should be celebrating New South Wales events, we should be proud to be from New South Wales and Sydney.”