October
AprilHard sell, and here's why
I first learned about the death of jumps horse Casa Boy whilst watching the George Negus show in which Richard Callander appeared ("Jumps folk face tough sell," 9/4). My first response was to wonder why someone from a state where jumps racing is banned was providing commentary. Where were Racing Victoria Ltd or Austalian Jumping Racing Association spokespeople?
I’m not surprised that much of his interview, didn’t appear in the segment. Victorians are sports-mad. They know sport, and they understand sport. The argument that "telling the entire story about what would happen to these horses if jumps racing were stopped" doesn’t hold up, and the public (and television interviewers) know it. How can a horse be a much loved part of the owner’s family one minute and be sent to the meatworks the next? The two positions are incompatible.
Secondly, the public may dislike jumps racing, but there’s no indication they feel the same about flat racing. I heard Glen Boss interviewed at Randwick on Saturday, making the point that Black Caviar "gets racing on to the front and back pages of newspapers." So she does, and so does jumps racing, especially when horses are killed or a racing official abuses female journalists who ask inconvenient questions.
It will be interesting to see and hear the spin if jumps newcomer Cats Fun should come to grief.
This horse won Perth’s Cox Stakes and Tatt’s Cup in late 2007, and the Perth Cup a month later. Since then the horse has been uncompetitive, and a fifth at Geelong was his best result last year. Now his owners have decided that this eight-year-old winner of $800,000 will begin a jumps career.
If anything happens to this horse, Mr Callander, you’re going to have tough sell "explaining the love" to any Victorian audience.
Ashwood (Vic)