October
JuneGenuine grief
Surely if anyone doubted the feeling jumps trainers have for their horses they only had to be listening to Sport 927 on Monday May 31 to hear the pain in the voice of trainer Bryce Stanaway as he was asked about the loss of his jumper Prince Vitality. He described the loss as the same as losing a family member, and it was no beat-up — he was clearly anguished.
Of course, the death of Prince Vitality will bring out the anti-jumps people again with a vengeance. The same old, tired clichés will get another run.
Of more interest is the question of how it could be that last week a trainer could take a horse for a trial over the (higher) "live" fences at Casterton only to be told by stewards that an acceptable trial would not qualify the horse to compete over the new modular steeples, yet Prince Vitality was allowed a start in the race that brought about his demise even though he had never even seen the higher obstacles?
There is no doubt to me that jumps industry people are working very hard to improve the safety and the image of their sport. There is equally no doubt (as exampled by Mr Stanaway’s evident distress) that they love their horses — and that their horses love jumping. The last thing they need is erratic management and the non-availability of trials for their horses.
Sure, the fields in terms of numbers, and maybe even in terms of depth of quality, are currently down and this affects betting turnover.
However, until the sector is given ongoing certainty, how can it be otherwise? It surely cannot come down to an accounting issue, for if it does surely the sport in general is doomed.
Monegeetta (Vic)