The rise and fall of jumps racing
The Sunday Age
Sunday January 31, 2010
The sport has had a reprieve, but is still on very shaky ground, writes Age racing editor Andrew Eddy.BREEDING The Australian breeding scene takes no account of jumps races. The situation here, where we breed almost solely for speed, has long puzzled overseas visitors as Australias most famous race is a peculiar 3200- metre distance handicap called the Melbourne Cup. Yet only a handful of stallions standing in this country are staying-bred horses.The few who are bred to stay generally sired by international or local derby winners are tried as jumpers only after proving too slow for fl at racing. Unlike in Europe, no commercial breeder would ever consider specifi cally breeding a jumps horse.TRAINERS As the most recent jumps season saw a reduction of 29 races to just 83 jumps races in Victoria, the number of trainers who prepare jumping horses has dropped dramatically.Last season, New Zealand-based John Wheeler along with Eric Musgrove and Ciaron Maher shared training honours with nine wins each. Only 33 other trainers managed to snare a jumps win. In past years, top trainers Lee Freedman and David Hayes have prepared jumps horses but both now prepare only fl at gallopers.JOCKEYS There are 23 registered A-grade jumps riders in Victoria and a further nine B-grade riders, with numbers declining sharply each year. As RVL has allocated $3 million in prizemoney (with $500,000 to be spent on building new obstacles) for jumps racing this year, none of the riders earn a full-time living out of the sport. Jumps riders earn 10 per cent of the total prizemoney so, ultimately, 32 riders fi ght it out for $250,000 in stakes earnings. Riders earn $330 a ride, but only four riders Steven Pateman (64), Brett Scott (61), Gavin Bedggood (56) and Paul Hamblin (53) had more than 43 rides for the season.VENUES The multi pile-up at Flemington in the 2008 Grand National Hurdle, which resulted in only four of the 13 starters fi nishing the race, spelled the end of jumps events at headquarters with the Grand Nationals moved to Betfair Park in 2009. In 2010, Betfair Park will be the only metropolitan course to feature jumps races.Caulfi eld has not held jumps races for many years and Moonee Valley is now banned as a jumps venue after a spate of falls in recent years.The number of country courses that host jumps races has also fallen dramatically. Last year, just eight courses Casterton (4 races), Coleraine (1), Hamilton (4), Moe (3), Mornington (5), Pakenham (3), Warrnambool (10) and Yarra Valley (3) staged jumping events.OBSTACLES Unlike in many European countries, there is nothing natural about the obstacles in hurdle and steeplechase races in Victoria. The obstacles in Victoria have easy-to-dismantle steel frames, held in place by steel pins with urethane matting placed across the face of the synthetic brush.Critics of such obstacles claim that horses do not respect the lightweight obstacle as they do when a log is placed in front of them. The oftenrevised obstacles have done nothing to slow down the pace of the jumps races and it is the speed at which the horses travel that is a crucial factor when considering the number of falls that have occurred.CALENDAR The 2009 season ran from March until September, although jumps racing was suspended for some weeks following a number of falls over the Warrnambool May carnival. The 2010 season is expected to be the shortest yet, beginning in late April and running for just four months. IN VICTORIA With just 83 races run last season, jumps racingrepresented about two per cent of the total races runin Victoria, but produced just 0.8 per cent of the totalwagering on Victorian racing. The average number of starters per race declined fromnine horses in 2006 to 7.6 horses per race last season. Last season, 285 individual horses raced. Falls in jumps racing increased from three in 100starters in 2008 to fi ve in 100 starters in 2009. Thetotal number of falls increased to 32 for the season. Horse fatalities increased last season from 1.17 percent of starters in 2008 to 1.27 per cent with eighthorses dying in jumps races compared with 12 theprevious season when 41 more jumps races were run. An independent review of jumps racing in December2008 by Judge David Jones forced the following changesto the make-up of jumps races: The maximum number of horses in any jumps race willbe 14. The minimum weight to be carried by a horse is 64kg. The minimum distance for a hurdle race will be 3200m. No race will be held on a track rated fi rmer than dead 4.
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