‘You can work out how many decades!’ Ann Peacock on famous parents, racing, the Liberal Party – and her stalker

Ann Peacock – with the same disarming directness she deploys to talk about horseracing, the Liberal Party, her famous mother Lady Susan Renouf, her children, her fun Braccialini handbag with its teddy bear clasp, the time she stopped mouldy fruit being pelted at her politician dad Andrew – is telling me about her stalker.

This is not where I expected to land interviewing a Victoria Racing Club board member ahead of Melbourne Cup Week. But life has been rich and varied and brimming with ups and downs for this former TV weather presenter, charity fundraiser, ex-Crown Casino executive, and Liberal Party blue blood who was once denied membership of the party’s blue ribbon Kooyong branch during a party spat, gallingly, as it was her father’s own electorate.

Political violence against women could not be more topical this week given the shocking events in Wangaratta, but Peacock, 61, raises the incident because I ask about a fragment in The Age archive reporting a 1999 police investigation.

“It was a shocking thing to have to go through,” says Peacock.

“Michael [Kroger, her second husband and Liberal Party powerbroker] and I were engaged. And I was receiving dirty letters and threatening letters.” They demanded Kroger end a political dispute with then premier Jeff Kennett.

Her house was broken into and – Peacock says deliberately and 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.”

Police questioned a man, but the case was judged hard to prove for various reasons and no one was ever charged. How does she reflect on it now?

Peacock responds that she doesn’t. And she won’t link it to the attack this week on Helen Haines, which caused the independent MP’s legs to be amputated. “I don’t correlate the two. ”

I am on time for lunch with Peacock at Grill Americano, the Manhattan meets Melbourne Italo-steak joint on Flinders Lane in the heart of the city. To be on time for the 61-year-old, who is practically a Melbourne institution in her own right (she has 3513 contacts in her phone), is to be late. For Peacock, as is her habit, is always early.

It is a warm sunny day and Peacock is all stylish fun dressed in a Versace ruffled top, Pucci print trousers of many colours, shimmery silver Trussardi ankle boots and an armful of bangles.

She has already spotted and paid her respects to restaurant proprietor Chris Lucas (Society, Chin Chin), who is power lunching slap bang in the middle of the restaurant with federal Liberal MP and shadow treasurer Tim Wilson.

Peacock orders a non-alcoholic XPA, popular in Europe she says, reveals she doesn’t have a partner, talks about the importance of a career – “I’ve worked hard since I was 17, I enjoy the stimulation greatly” – but also embracing the home for her sons – “I love my children more than anything”. Edward, “Woody”, who has just graduated with honours from law at Monash, is still ensconced at home while his elder brother Andrew is a doctor in neurology at The Alfred.

When Edward gets a job will you kick him out, I wonder.

“Absolutely not,” says Peacock, who left the family home during year 6 for boarding school in the late ’70s. Her darling mother Susan, a journalist and model who had caused outrage by advertising Sheridan sheets while Peacock’s father was minister for the army in the 1960s, fell in love with horse trainer Robert Sangster and moved to the Isle of Man and married him. During school holidays, Ann would fly with her sisters Caroline and Jane around the world to visit.

Racing has been part of her life since 1974, when Leilani, part-owned by her parents, won the Turnbull Stakes, Toorak Handicap, and the Caulfield Cup before taking a close second in the Melbourne Cup.

“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.”

It is a big year for the VRC. For the first time, the famous Cox Plate will run at Flemington on Saturday while its Mooney Valley racecourse is reconstructed.

Ever the PR, Peacock says young people are coming back to racing to experience a whole day’s entertainment. Robbie Williams will perform on Cup Day, while the Gold Coast DJ Fisher, who has 2.6 million Instagram followers, will return after performing at Stakes Day last year. Laughing like a 13-year-old, she admits she didn’t know who the global DJ phenomenon was. “But, of course, I got up to speed. And he was a phenomenal success.”

She waves away the big news that VRC chairman Neil Wilson is stepping down, to be replaced by board member Vin Cox, as simply normal change, despite reports of board level machinations. Peacock herself was re-elected to the board without a ballot in December for a second three-year term.

Peacock and her sister, British horse trainer Jane Chapple-Hyam, have two horses, Military Academy and Ambassadorial, both set to run on Cup Day in different races. But she laughs off press reports her sister, who trains more than 50 horses in the UK, is planning to relocate to Australia.

Like racing, politics threads through her life. Her “loving, caring” father Andrew was Liberal Party leader twice before he became ambassador to Washington.

“He would get a bit agitated when he was cooking the chops on the grill. He didn’t want to be disturbed because he wanted them to turn out perfectly. We baked the potato and had to align with the timing of the chops. He was a great father. I was very fortunate to have him.”

She accompanied him on campaigns. The two-time Liberal Party leader performed well in two federal elections but failed to unseat the hugely popular Bob Hawke’s Labor government.

During the 1993 federal election campaign launch in Sydney I sat as a university student with a row of Liberal Party dowagers as I was on a work placement with advertising agency George Patterson Bates, which was producing ads for the ill-fated leader, John Hewson. Peacock was the star, judging by the applause when he entered the auditorium.

But the dowagers expressed consternation at the youth of the woman accompanying Peacock, until one finally said in relief. “It’s his daughter.”

One time Peacock travelled with her father to Perth, where a radio broadcaster had urged locals to throw rotten fruit at the Liberal leader.

At a campaign rally organisers set up mesh in front of the stage.

“And so having been warned about it, he got on and did his work. And my eyes were on the fruit coming towards us. And I actually caught out of the side of my eye someone climbing over the mesh. And just in time, I was able to let the security know.”

Flying back over east, the politician told her daughter to enjoy the ride in the government jet because it would be their last. He knew he had lost.

We are here at Grill Americano partly because Peacock has staged fondly remembered family dinners here, the mixed grill a family favourite. But that is now off the menu.

Dietaries (shellfish for her, dairy for me) rule out the enticing entrée special, zucchini flower stuffed with scallops, mascarpone and crab and grated bottarga on top, but we order a serve for photographer Penny Stephens on the proviso she reviews it for us, and she reports “it has a depth of flavour, but subtle”.

Peacock orders the grilled King George whiting, dark grill marks across the fillet, drizzled with rich olive oil. I opt for the veal cotoletta, the golden brown crust in contrast with the tender and juicy meat it encases.

To get around my dietaries, the white jacketed waiter offers to serve two versions of the cavolo salad of tuscan kale with pea, shaved cabbage and pecorino cheese. “The salad is the superstar of this meal,” Peacock declares.

Like her mother, who became Lady Susan Renouf upon her third marriage, to a New Zealand businessman, Peacock both longed for but never achieved a political career.

When asked about why she didn’t run (she was mentioned frequently as a contender for lord mayor of Melbourne), Peacock puts down her cutlery and looks out the window.

“I wanted to. It just has not worked out. One time Michael and I were separating. Another time it was against Robert Doyle. I knew I couldn’t win. And my dad said to me ‘don’t run unless you know you are going to win’.”

She has an open face and her emotions surface easily, recalling with a shudder, the “death rattle” experienced by parents of friends and her own parents when they died – Susan a decade ago and Andrew five years ago in the US, where he made his home and married his third wife after his stint as ambassador to the US in the Howard government.

Back in the 1990s, politics could be rough. She names a senior Liberal Party member she says blocked her from being a member of the Kooyong electorate. “And I’m pretty sure, it had something to do with his relationship with Michael. So I was being punished. And Kooyong, as you know, was my father’s seat. I couldn’t fathom what was going on and why I was targeted.”

Peacock would rather not talk about politics now but is gently prompted. She drops her voice. “I am concerned about the Liberal Party, and the state of the Liberal Party, and where it stands in people’s minds.

“What is to be done? Well, we’ll see, state-wise, we’ll see very shortly. I mean, if the Liberals can’t win this election … I really don’t know what to say.”

She says, inside, she feels she is 40 years old.

“And I’m happy with it. I’ve gotten lots of time in front of me still. I’ve had children. I love my children more than anything. And there’s lots of time to travel.

“You can relate so much to being younger. I mean, at 61, I still laugh like I did when I was 13. And I feel so taken back to those times when I have that laugh.”

Lucas approaches for a chat and in the process a little piece of how Melbourne works slots into place.

After chiding me for not keeping in contact after he hosted me for lunch a year or so ago both he and Peacock talk Cup week and I realise there is another link between the two over and above family mixed-grill dinners. The Lucas restaurant group has signed a deal to provide its signature restaurants to punters at Flemington during race days for the first time.

After lunch a white-coated waiter appears and unprompted lays out some plates and returns with tiramisu and a gelato, even though we haven’t ordered it. “It’s from Chris,” he says.

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