Thoroughbred Racing SA (TRSA) this week announced the 2015 jumps racing program for South Australia, which saw the number of jumps races at the state’s only city track reduced from nine to six, over four race days.
What has been both baffling and infuriating to the South Australian jumps racing fraternity has been the extraordinary response of the South Australian Jockey Club (SAJC), which runs racing at Morphettville and has been trying to see jumps racing off the premises for a number of years.
Speaking after the TRSA announcement, SAJC made clear its displeasure at being compelled to hold jumps meetings, with CEO Brenton Wilkinson saying: “We just don’t believe there’s an industry in South Australia.”
But this is akin to holding a party but not sending out any invitations, and then complaining when nobody shows up.
Trainers, not unreasonably, want to showcase their horses at metropolitan tracks. If the only city track in South Australia is openly hostile to jumps racing, how can local trainers reasonably be expected to invest time, money and resources into building up a stable of jumpers?
With the state’s premier race club doing all it can to remove jumps racing from South Australia’s already lacklustre racing calendar, what incentive is there for owners and trainers, knowing that they may never have the opportunity to race at the state’s leading racecourse?
In addition, SAJC wilfully neglects the promotion of its jumps meetings, to the extent that in its advertising for Irish Race Day in 2014 – an extremely well-attended and lucrative meeting whose entire existence is down to jumps racing – not a single mention was made of the steeple and hurdle that were the main races on the card.
In both its statements and actions, SAJC is essentially blaming the jumps racing industry for not being sufficiently large enough to warrant its place on the calendar, while at the same time removing all incentive for the industry to grow by neglecting it like an unloved step-child, constantly encouraging uncertainty and being openly hostile to its participants.
What has further baffled the jumps racing fraternity is that this most recent statement by the CEO marks yet another shift in the position of SAJC.
As recently as the end of the 2014 jumps season, Mr Wilkinson said the club’s objections to the continuation of jumps racing were based on the (seemingly anecdotal) assertion that holding a handful of meetings damaged the club’s brand and non-race day revenue, and that people didn’t want to book weddings and conferences there because of this. In the view of Mr Wilkinson and his board at this time, jumps racing damaged Morphettville’s non-racing revenue.
But come 2015, and SAJC blames jumps racing itself for its demise. And when you have state sports minister Leon Bignell in lockstep with SAJC and talking about banning jumps racing under animal cruelty legislation, what realistic hope is there of the jumps industry growing? What aspiring trainer would even consider going into jumps racing under such an uncertain future?
The message to the South Australian jumps racing fraternity from its leading club would seem to be: grow, without our encouragement and in the face of hostility. If you don’t, we will kick you out of Morphettville for good. And it will be all your fault.
In the interests of full disclosure, Mark Angus unsuccessfully stood for election to the SAJC board in 2014 on a jumps racing ticket.
Strummer Jones
Roar Rookie
I think "banned" can be interpreted as "not interested". I would like to see what options to respond were available. For the record, I am "not interested" and hold no opinion whether jumps should be banned or not. Additionally, the problem jumps have is that every time a horse falls, most people with absolutely no interest in the sport believe it should be banned or couldn't care less if it was. This is opposed to, say, when 2 of their football club's players are found to have been abusive to a female etc. All of a sudden, the moral high ground disappears and all excuses in the world ("its not the entire team") suddenly materialise.
Banjumpsracing
Guest
Irish Raceday was extremely week attended and lucrative? Um, I've seen plenty of photos that would suggest otherwise. In fact crowds were 5000 down on what was expected. No one wants jumps racing in SA, and a recent poll in the Advertiser (yesterday) showed 80% of th public want it banned. Jumps racing has had it's day
Jason Cornell
Expert
The SAJC has 1832 members - down 9% from 2009. 2009 was an important year as the board and CEO changed. SAJC loss from operations has been a combined $22M since then. They receive significant investment income from interest derived from the sale of Cheltenham racecourse to offset this.
Mark Angus
Roar Rookie
Thanks for your thoughts Cathy, and especially your comment about the way in which uncertainty around the industry only discourages owners and trainers from continuing in it. And you correctly identify the approach SAJC is taking, in that they don't promote jumps meetings and then cite poor attendance/turnover as a reason for not continuing. There is a sense that all people—wherever they are in Australia—need to rally round this season, getting to Morphettville jumps meetings whenever they can, in order to prove that it can be a thriving part of the industry.
Cathy Walker
Guest
Well argued Mark. Racing Victoria adopted the same strategy in the late '90s when it was closing down tracks and "rationalising" under the Leadership 2000 plan - give an "underperforming" club a bad date, review the (poor) result then say it doesn't meet the benchmark. Same logic was used to promote Sunday racing - use the (impressive) figures from one-off special events such as a Kilmore Cup, and conclude everyone loves Sunday racing. Then program a whole lot of not-special Sundays and no-one turns up. By not promoting jumps races the SAJC can use the "told you no one likes it" argument if they get a poor crowd. I gave up owning jumpers 10 years ago because of the uncertainty of the future and the constant changing of the fences, the dates and the rules (or was it when they put the Melb Cup day hurdle on at 10am?). But I'm but happy to see many new faces in the game, particularly riders. Time to dive back in and show some support.