WITH Racing Victoria set to decide on the future of jumps racing in the coming days, the local jumps industry sits on a knife’s edge.
Local trainers including Officer’s Eric Musgrove and Nar Nar Goon’s John Leek Jnr are heavily involved in jumps racing and the Pakenham Racing Club is also in the firing line, being one of a select few tracks to host the events.
Leading trainer Chris Hyland said there would be huge consequences for the local racing industry if the sport was cancelled.
“It’s 25 per cent of my business and there’s several other guys that it’s probably a bigger percentage of their business,” he said.
“I only have 20-22 horses, if I lose five or six out of that, probably a couple of staff members will have to go, and they’re all locals.”
Hyland said his reputation was also at stake after pushing clients to invest in jumps racing on the understanding that the sport would at least survive until the end of 2009.
“It also affects my business in that when Racing Victoria gave it the go-ahead last year, one of my biggest clients, I put a bit of pressure on him to send horses to me from Sydney, at a decent expense to him.
“They weren’t just jumping clients, they had flat horses too. I don’t know how they’ll respond to it because they all invested money and I’m the one that encouraged them to do it.”
Jumps racing was thrust into the spotlight after three horses died during the three-day Warrnambool racing carnival, including two from Cranbourne trainer Robbie Laing’s stable.
It is the second year in a row the sport has come under scrutiny after a report was commissioned in 2008 following the disastrous Grand National Hurdle in June in which two horses died and only four of 13 starters finished the race.
As a result, jumps racing was restricted to a limited number of tracks throughout the state, including Pakenham.
Pakenham Racing Club’s racing manager Michael Hodge said the club would continue to support jumps racing and had lent its support to a submission from Country Racing Victoria in favour of continuing with the sport.
Racing Victoria is expected to announce a decision on the future of the sport by Friday.
– Stuart Teather
