JUMPS RACING
By Claudette Vaughan

The Abolitionist speaks with Lawrence Pope, the foremost authority and president of Victorian Advocates for Animals on how to get jump racing permanently banned from the last two remaining States where it’s still legal in Australia– South Australia and Victoria.

What is jumps racing?

Jumps racing involves thoroughbred race horses jumping over obstacles while racing for prize-money. Jumps races are run on normal race days in the city or country interspersed with normal flat races There are two types of jumps races – hurdle races and steeplechase races. Hurdles are lower and the races are run faster while steeplechase races have higher obstacles and are usually longer races.  The Warrnambool Grand Annual steeplechase is 5.5 kilometres long and has thirty three jumps – the most of any race in the world.
Many horses have died trying to surmount them all.  In 1909 and 1934 the entire fields fell. 1

 What’s wrong with jumps racing?

The fundamental objection to jumps racing is that it harms horses at a rate far above that of normal `flat ` racing i.e. racing that has no obstacles.

The level of death over the past thirty years in Victoria is around twenty times that of flat racing. Approximately one in every 115 starters can expect to die in a jumps race and one in 19 fall 2. Contrast this with around one death per 2150 starters 3 and one fall in around 300 starters on the flat and you can see the unambiguous nature of the problem. There is also a horse mortality visibility problem in that we simply don’t have accurate estimates of the number of horses that succumb during training for jumps racing. The opinion from those within racing maintains that it is substantial. Moreover, many horses recorded as injured while racing simply disappear with no record of their fate. Most will be killed for pet food.

One of the arguments proponents of jumps racing use is that it gives older or uncompetitive horses a chance to survive instead of being sent to slaughter. For us this is an argument against an industry that treats horses as disposable objects not an argument for jumps racing.

 It must be asked, if a dog or cat is `for life` then why isn’t a horse? Moreover it is simply not the case that all jumps horses are failed flat race horses some have been champions on the flat having won their owners large sums of money before being `put over the jumps` in an attempt to extract a few more dollars from them. For example Chibuli, High Celebrity, Holy Grail, Hibernian Prince, and Spanish Symbol, were all champion racehorses who had earned hundreds of thousands of dollars for their owners before being sacrificed on the alter of jumps racing. The latter, Spanish Symbol actually won jumps racing’s premier event the Hisken`s Steeplechase at Moonee Valley in 2007 before being killed in the same race this year. His seven hundred thousand dollars worth of winnings were not enough. His `people` had to keep racing him until he finally couldn’t make another jump. The fact that he had failed to even finish a race in his last three starts didn’t seem to matter either. Journalist Shane Templeton wrote “Chibuli who had been successful on the flat and over hurdles in NZ is having his career extended by the natural progression to steeplechasing” 4. Chibuli was killed five days later on the 6th of July 2002 in the Grand National Steeplechase at Flemington.  

How many horses have died in Victoria this year?

Eleven horses are known to have died on Victorian racetracks during the 2008 season.

Why focus on this as a campaign?

The bad faith displayed in horse racing is hard to witness without reaching some quite unattractive conclusions about our racing countrymen and women. Champion horses are kissed and cheered and patted in one race and in the next they are dead. Even while the horse is being euthanased it has socially ceased to exist and its name is usually not mentioned again. Races are not interrupted, trophies are handed out and garlands hung around the necks of those who won. Occasionally someone connected to the horse will be upset when the horse dies but it does not stop them from continuing to race jumps horses or to argue vociferously for its continuation. It is business as usual. The once feted horse is left dead under a tarpaulin at the back of the track and largely forgotten. Its death, if mentioned at all is spoken of as an accident, or “bad luck” or “I guess that’s the way it happens sometimes” 5. No responsibility is accepted by the owners or jockeys or trainers for the horse’s death. Newspaper racing results  most often record the horse as `fell` or `failed to finish` even when a death has occurred on the track. I have even heard the horse blamed for being clumsy. Sports journalists almost universally support jumps racing but the drama of horses falling is such that they cannot resist publishing controversial photos 6.

The Melbourne Herald-Sun and, occasionally, The Age have published photographs of the horses faces ploughing the soil and shattered bodies lying prone on the track. In 1994 The Age editorial called for the phasing out of jumps racing altogether because of the carnage at Warrnambool that year when three horses died and half the field failed to finish 7. Sadly, little had changed since that time. In 2003 following yet another Racing Victoria “review” the Warrambool Grand Annual Steeplechase went ahead as usual. Intensive Care was so exhausted after its gruelling 5.5 kilometres he couldn’t make the final 33rd jump and fell and died of his terrible injuries. An absolute disgrace.  The campaign against jumps racing is a winnable campaign that should be fought. This is why we are fighting it.

Can it be fixed?

Put simply, no. Jumps racing necessarily entails a luck-based approached to the occupational health and safety of the horse and its rider. You can race a horse reasonably safely and you can jump a horse reasonably safely but you can’t do both at the same time with any degree of acceptable safety. Nine of the thirteen horses that began this year’s Grand National Hurdle at Flemington failed to finish. Two were killed.

When public outrage becomes too embarrassing to be ignored further a review is called; one in 1991, 1994, 2002 and now 2008 8.   The `problems` are supposedly identified and rectified. Frequently the outcomes of the reviews are simply forgotten.  Recommendations are never put in place or trivial changes are implemented that have little or no effect - perhaps moving this rail or that hurdle a few metres or drawing lines or a promise of better `schooling` for horses. The entire exercise is one of window dressing – an appearance of action and reform without actually inconveniencing anyone or altering existing practices.

However after we began the first ever concerted campaign against jumps racing Racing Victoria Ltd has withdrawn the Melbourne Cup hurdle and removed the final killer fence in the Warrnambool Grand Annual and the Noel Mason Steeplechase – much to the chagrin of Herald/Sun racing writer Adrian Dunn who missed its excitement and wanted it back. He thought the last 400 metres was a “Ho-Hum” affair without the hurdle. 9

Nevertheless concerted campaigning saw a serious attempt to make jumping racing safer and up to a million dollars was spent creating soft top ‘safety hurdles’ and steeples. Initially the jumps produced good results with a fifty percent reduction in falls and deaths in their first year. However the drivers of racing itself, to win races and money, meant that horse began going through the obstacles at greater and greater speed. Less qualified horses were entered on the chance that if they survived they might win the prize. The result was that after two years of trialling the safety jumps experiment collapsed under the collective weight of a pile of dead horses and infuriated activists.

How have you campaigned?

In 2000 I saw a photograph in the Herald Sun of a horse driving its face into the ground with it hindquarters high in the air. I was disgusted and decided to research jumps racing as a potential campaign focus. As a result, we began our campaign on July 2001 with a letter to The Age. On the 23rd of April 2002 with a meeting at Racing Victoria Ltd. At that meeting independent John Capel and myself were told ‘animal welfare is a top priority’ 10 that jumps racing had been made safer and, really, we should forget all about it. The phone calls and lobbying began the next day and a letter-writing and media campaign was initiated. Three years of race-day protests at Flemington, Moonee Valley and elsewhere followed. Racegoers were shocked. In the past there had been murmurings about jumps racing and expressions of concern. But JUMPS KILL banners and placards calling for the end of jumps racing? Anti-jumps posters around racetracks and in the suburbs? They had never seen anything like it. They were outraged that we could be saying there was a moral problem with this form of racing. Even when horses fell and were euthansed in front of the stands, punters and race personnel would be angry with us, not with themselves, for perpetuating the barbaric and predictable annual ritual, “I hope you’re happy now” was a frequent refrain. What mattered to racegoers was maintaining an air of `everything is ok`. The truth was ugly and embarrassing. We chanted of the names of dead horses going back thirty years. Our relentlessly confronting but fact-based campaign eventually penetrated the most hardened mindsets in racing to the point now where few, apart from journalists, believe the activity is not morally problematic and in danger of being axed.

VAFA is regularly featured in newspaper stories and TV reports about jumps racing and we are ready to engage Racing Victoria, the Office of Racing and network with other animal groups where this will advance the campaign to end jumps racing. Animals Australia, independent John Capel and Ballarat Organisation for Animal Rights (Boar) have been key players in the fight. The RSPCA and Animal Liberation Victoria have also been very supportive and effective.

How can it be stopped?

The last year’s deaths and subsequent protesting has caused the Minister for Racing to order the first ever fully independent review. This is being undertaken by retired county court judge David Jones and is currently underway. We are expecting the judge’s report by the end of November. We are hoping that this will spell the end of jumps racing. In the end the decision will be with the Minister and Racing Victoria. Several factors are in our favour. Jumps racing doesn’t make nearly as much money for the TAB as flat racing because punters tend not to back jumps races – the favourite may end up dead on track! According to some analyses for every dollar of prize money put up in flat race ten dollars is gambled.

 Conversely for every dollar of prize money put up in jumps race only two dollars fifty is wagered. Much less money for the TAB Corp and the government.  So we are not without support from within racing as The Age journalist Tony Bourke put it, “some of the harshest critics of jumps racing are within the racing industry and they could not give a fig for the welfare of the horses. They are more concerned with betting turnovers”. 11

Tasmania recently ended jump racing on business grounds and it was abandoned in NSW a decade ago because of public pressure and poor financial returns.  It is also tricky to put out and retrieve the obstacles for jumps races between flat races and so it is not popular with the unions. Moreover, jumps-racing is a never ending bad news story. For as long as the horses continue to fall and die bad press and poor public image will follow. It simply isn’t fixable. However it does have its passionate supporters and if we hadn’t campaigned so strongly jumps racing would not be in the precarious condition it is today. We can’t afford to be complacent. In 1991 a federal senate select committee recommended the end of jumping racing on animal welfare grounds but here we are in 2008 still fighting, as our American friends say, it ain’t over til it`s over.

How will they let go of jumps racing?

Racing Victoria could replace jumps racing with high weight flat racing. This would enable most jumps horses and jockeys to continue their flat racing careers. Racing Victoria has spent sixty million dollars on Flemington racecourse surely it can spend a few million dollars assisting jockeys and the industry transitioning to a more ethical framework 12?

Supporters can help bring about the end of jumps racing by writing to the press and to:

Minister for Racing
The Hon. Rob Hulls
Level 3, 1 Treasury Place
Treasury Reserve
East Melbourne
3002
rob.hulls@parliament.vic.gov.au

And
Racing Victoria
Rob Hines CEO
400 Epson Rd
Flemington Vic 3031

They can also donate to the
anti-jumps fund

VAFA
PO Box 377
North Carlton
Vic 3054

Contact: Lawrence Pope
President
Victorian Advocates for Animals
P O Box 377 Nth Carlton, Victoria 3054
www.victorianadvocatesforanimals.org.au
Mobile: 0416 22 86 96