Saving Jumps Racing

There are few more loathsome types in Australian sport than those zealots who seek to prohibit jumps racing in this country. They are ignorant fanatics who, like all single issue advocates, fail to see the forest for the trees. They view the game like simpletons view grindhouse films, refusing to acknowledge the benefits and the positives and the merits. If racing officials and governing legislators cave to their demands, racing in this country is dead and so to is common sense and reason.

Jumps racing is already an incredibly marginalised sport in this country. It exists only in Victoria and South Australia. It is outlawed in every other state with Tasmania the most recent jurisdiction to succumb to public pressure. It has, more often than not, been cast in the role of the strange gay uncle. It is accepted but rarely embraced. Only strongholds like Warnambool and Oakbank clutch the game with genuine love and affection. Racing administrators, particularly those in Government, no longer view the sport as the gem of winter racing, a sparkle in the gloom of grey. Rather, it is seen by some as an embarrassment that needs to be hidden and even a tragedy that needs to be stomped on.

The decline in the standing of jumps racing is no better exemplified than in the abolition of the Cup Day hurdle. A staple of Melbourne Cup Day for so many years and regarded as the second most treasured race on the card, the race was scrapped at the turn of the century by administrators who felt the race had the potential to embarrass the racing industry as a whole. No consideration was paid to the tradition of the race, the riders and trainers involved in the jumps game, the enjoyment many took from the race and the fact that the potential for a fall or fatality on the flat is only marginally less than the potential of a fall or fatality over the sticks. The race was simply scrapped by those pulling the reins at the VRC and Racing Victoria in order to appease anti-jumps activists and save themselves from the embarrassment of not a fall or a death but of a public protest.

That is how these activists roll. They seek to gain their way through public humiliation. To most it would appear that they are actually hoping for a fatality so that their entire being is justified. They certainly seem keener to witness disaster than those actually involved in the jumps game, who love and care for their steeds. They are extremists who, once they have achieved their short-term goal of outlawing jumps racing, will attempt to convince the powers-that-be to prohibit horse racing entirely. A blood sport, they call it.

There is, without question, a risk associated with jumps racing. There is a risk to both horse and jockey. That risk, however, is not so great that the sport should be outlawed. Those who advocate such extreme action are blinkered and more concerned with their public profile than they are over the welfare of the jumps horse. Prohibition is the cheap and easy option and it fails to account for the benefits the game brings.

Those benefits are plentiful.

It is rarely recognised by anti-jumps zealots that many of the horses who are sent over the hurdles and steeples would be nothing more than glue if jumps racing didn’t exist. That statement is crude but it is a truth that is worth remembering. Jumpers are usually horses who fail on the flat or stayers who have few races available for them to be competitive due to Australia’s obsession with sprint racing. The cold truth is that racing is a money game and if horses are too slow to collect a cheque then they usually end up at the knackery. Jumps racing gives many horses a chance at life.

Not only are horses given a second chance. So too are jockeys. Due to racing's archaic handicapping system that has minimum weights far too low, many jockeys, men and women who are genuine horse lovers, are given a chance to extend their career in the racing industry by racing over the jumps. Patrick Payne, one of Australia’s greatest modern day hoops, is one such example.

The livelihoods of many trainers and their staff are also not accounted for by those looking to shutdown jumps racing. Trainers such as Eric Musgrove and Robbie Laing, and in days gone by the late Jim Houlahan (the Bart Cummings of jumps racing), have been primarily focused on hurdlers and chasers. They have a talent for the game and made a career out of it. These careers would be virtually terminated if jumps racing is banned in Victoria and South Australia.

There is also very little consideration paid, unsurprisingly, to those who enjoy the spectacle and excitement of jumps racing. Many of us, horse lovers and gamblers, would enter a phase of severe disillusionment with racing if jumps racing is abolished. Many more of us will be just as disgusted by the government’s involvement in its demise. Another case of unwarranted government intervention. It is akin to banning boxing or mixed martial arts or motor racing or any other sport to appease a vocal minority who oppose anything that has any risk. Many of us lovers of the jumping game have some great memories. Karasi’s international success. Specular’s wonderful season. Misty Weather’s 25-length win in the Hiskens. The mighty St. Steven. The fallen log. Hibernian Prince’s love of the ‘Bool. The Tozer Road double.

The older jumps racing fans will have many more memories from a time long before mine.

There should be many more to come, one would hope.

Rather than engaging in nasty and petulant black-and-white street fights over the existence of the sport, industry participants, racing administrators and government officials should be devoting energy and resources to make the sport safer. The petty and ignorant activists should be treated with the disdain they deserve and left out of the process. We know their position and they have nothing constructive to add.

The first thing that needs to be done is to scrap the ridiculous fences currently used. These supposedly safer fences are nothing more than speed-bumps and serve only to trip horses traveling at full tilt. The jumps need to be larger and sturdier so that horses respect them. Only then will they instinctively slow and jump the obstacles. Australian jumps racing needs to take a leaf out of New Zealand racing and make the jumps far more fearsome.

An increase in weights would also serve as a most viable safety measure. The greater the weight, the slower the pace of the horse, the more likely he is to clear the fences. It is done in Britain and should be done here.

An increase in the resources used to fund the training of jumps jockeys would also be more than useful in improving safety. Jockeys are well trained but there would be no harm in offering education courses and refresher classes to drum in the need for safety. Additional funds for research into how to make races safer would also be a wise use of resources.

There is plenty that can be done before we reach any serious discussion about putting to bed the noble sport of jumps racing.

One would hope that Victorian Racing Minister Rob Hulls and new chairman of Racing Victoria Rob Hines, a self-described fan of jumps racing, don’t cave to this vocal minority and outlaw a game that has been engrained in Australian culture as long as the Melbourne Cup. They need to show some bottle and show some brains and work towards improving jumps racing and its safety record, not abolishing the sport altogether.