THE metropolitan jumping season ended on a high for Ciaron Maher, Steven Pateman, Trent Wells and Fran Houlahan yesterday, but if jumps advocates have their way next year, the season finale might take place not on a Sunday at a sodden Sportingbet Park, but at Caulfield on a Saturday, reports The Age. It says: Jumps racing still has its critics - the 20 or so protesters who assembled outside the gates before the first race yesterday and some within the racing sector who argue that its low betting
THE metropolitan jumping season ended on a high for Ciaron Maher, Steven Pateman, Trent Wells and Fran Houlahan yesterday, but if jumps advocates have their way next year, the season finale might take place not on a Sunday at a sodden Sportingbet Park, but at Caulfield on a Saturday, reports The Age.
It says: Jumps racing still has its critics - the 20 or so protesters who assembled outside the gates before the first race yesterday and some within the racing sector who argue that its low betting turnover is a major issue.
There is no doubt the sport has taken large strides this year even if field sizes have been an issue, but they are set to lift as the number of owners and trainers now prepared to school horses for a jumping campaign appears to be increasing as the certainty over the sport's survival grows.
It needs to ensure that its improved safety record (one horse has died in a race in Victoria this season) continues to be maintained, and, crucially, it needs to capture the public imagination. And the best way to do that is to return jumps races to metropolitan Saturday meetings in winter when the media attention is strongest.
Mike Symons, owner of champion jumper Black And Bent and chairman of the Melbourne Racing Club, which runs Caulfield and Sandown, says the MRC would like to run hurdles at Caulfield. (www.theage.com.au)