Ann Peacock, 61, a former TV weather presenter, charity fundraiser and Crown Casino executive, told a wide-ranging interview that she and Liberal Party powerbroker Michael Kroger, her second husband, were engaged when she began receiving dirty letters and threatening letters. The letters demanded Kroger end a political dispute with then premier Jeff Kennett.
Her house was broken into and, as she put it pointedly, all the female clothing was touched. "I don't know if the police record says this, but the man had ejaculated on my car. And he stole lots of things. So it really became very personal and dirty," she said. Police questioned a man, but the case was judged hard to prove and no one was ever charged.
"It was a shocking thing to have to go through," Peacock said. She said she does not reflect on it now and would not draw a parallel with the attack on Haines, the independent MP whose legs were amputated after an incident in Wangaratta this week. "I don't correlate the two."
The interview comes as the VRC prepares for a landmark carnival. For the first time, the Cox Plate will be run at Flemington on Saturday while Moonee Valley racecourse is reconstructed. Robbie Williams will perform on Cup Day and DJ Fisher returns after last year's Stakes Day show. Peacock waved away the news that VRC chairman Neil Wilson is stepping down, to be replaced by Vin Cox, calling it normal change despite reports of board-level machinations. She was re-elected to the board without a ballot in December.
Racing has run through her life since 1974, when Leilani, part-owned by her parents, won the Turnbull Stakes, Toorak Handicap and Caulfield Cup before running a close second in the Melbourne Cup. She and her sister, British trainer Jane Chapple-Hyam, have two horses, Military Academy and Ambassadorial, set to run on Cup Day. "I've had this link to the VRC for decades. You can work out how many decades! To actually be there now, representing the members and people that are not yet members, is an honour that I hold the highest esteem," she said.
Politics also threads through her family story. Her father, Andrew Peacock, led the Liberal Party twice and served as ambassador to Washington. She recalled a campaign trip to Perth in which a radio broadcaster urged locals to throw rotten fruit at him; when someone climbed over the protective mesh, she alerted security in time. She described her father as "loving, caring".
Peacock spoke of her sons, Edward, "Woody", a recent Monash law graduate, and Andrew, a neurology doctor at The Alfred. Asked whether she would kick Edward out once he finds a job, she replied: "Absolutely not." Of working life she said: "I've worked hard since I was 17, I enjoy the stimulation greatly."