Horse racing / Dafydd Lewis / 20 May 2009 / 1 Comments Bet Now

Death by 'a thousand cuts' was a cruel punishment practised by the Chinese over thousands of years. Tied to a stake victims would lose legs, arms and skin before finally succumbing to the torture. Jumps racing is experiencing a similar fate, writes Vin Lowe.

When Judge Jones delivered his Report into Jumps earlier this year the first major limbs were severed.

The Victoria Racing Club - home of the richest jumps races in Australia - the Grand National Hurdle and Grand National Steeplechase - would no longer conduct jumps races at Flemington, the Club unable to comply with the condition to provide Dead 4 or worse going throughout the circuit.

Sure, those races could be moved to Sandown but the loss of participation at Australia's most famous racecourse was a heavy blow.

This week changes ordered by the Board of Racing Victoria Limited will only serve to contract the sport further.

RVL Board Chairman Michael Duffy announced that the last jump in all hurdle and steeplechase races to be run until season's end (Coleraine on 27 September) would have the last obstacle removed.

This virtually rules out Moonee Valley - home of the prestigious A V Hiskens Steeplechase - as a jumps venue.

Removing the jump in the straight at Moonee Valley means there will be a gap of almost 800 metres between obstacles located at the 'school' and the first positioned at the 1500 metre mark on the Dean Street side. It is ludicrous to contemplate removing the final obstacle mid-race when fallers, loose horses - or any other catastrophe for that matter - could emerge.

This leaves Betfair Park as the home of jumps for city dwellers. But hasn't the Melbourne Racing Club made it perfectly clear that it wants to sell off much of Sandown to fund major projects at Caulfield?

This week, while jumps racing was getting all the attention, RVL quietly announced that Werribee Racecourse would eventually become the Quarantine Centre - freeing up Sandown for future development.

If the Melbourne Racing Club can divest itself of all jumps obligations they would then be in a position to maximize returns from any sub-divisions that takes place.

The upshot of all this is a lack of confidence in jumps racing. The confidence to purchase, prepare and race jumpers now completely gone.

If jumps racing is to die a natural death than it is heading in the right direction.

Can the anti-jumps brigade speed things up?
Definitely.

Jumps racing has become a media favourite. Newspapers have no hesitation in plastering the photo of a mangled horse over the front page; television delights in replaying any horrific incidents. How RVL seeks to control (or censor) this will be interesting. The cynic in me says the removal of the last jump will mean photographers will have difficulty obtaining that special 'front page shot' for their editor.

Will cameras be allowed near jumps again? For the greatest 'fuel in the fire' for the anti-jumps lobby is the photograph - and a picture paints a thousand 'anti-jumps' words (ala Abu Ghurayb Prison).

The fact is fatalities at Warrnambool have now thrust the issue into the public domain; there is a groundswell of sympathy for the horses and the odd jumps supporter never fails to put their foot in the mouth whenever they face a camera.

Jumps racing is important to one community in Victoria.

The citizens of Warrnambool play host to a great 3 day carnival - it is nothing short of amazing that thousands of people travel from all over Australia to enjoy the races.

Horse fatalities are an accepted accidental bi-product of the event.

Just as loss of blood is from a thousand cuts.