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 brought out the anti-jumps people with a vengeance. The same old, tired clichés got another run.
Of more interest is the question of how it could be that in the previous 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 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.
Jim Griffiths
Monegeetta (Vic)
• Racing Victoria replies: Casterton has conducted racing annually over the non-modular steeplechase fences since 1953 and has registered only one fatality over the non-modular fences in the past 10 years (they had a second fatality in 2008, but it was over the modular fences in the course proper).
Compulsory qualification over the non-modular steeples at Casterton was introduced in Victoria’s Local Rules in July 2008, but rescinded in February 2009 upon recommendation of His Honour David Jones, following his 2008 Jumps Racing Review, on the grounds that it was not essential to safety.
This recommendation was supported by the Australian Jumps Racing Association (AJRA), Australian Trainers Association (ATA) and Victorian Jockeys Association and thus was adopted by RVL.
This being the case the current rules require horses that want to race over the live hedges to qualify over the modular steeplechase fences. From a practical point of view for trainers, it means they don’t have to travel all the way to Casterton (352km west of Melbourne) to qualify their horses. This rule is fully supported by the ATA and AJRA.
Jumps trials were held at Casterton on May 19— 11 days prior to its race meeting on May 30— to allow trainers the opportunity to school their horses over the live hedges and gain experience if they desired. Additionally Casterton is open for schooling at all times and Mr Stanaway could have taken advantage of this opportunity had he considered it necessary for Prince Vitality.
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