Future of jumps racing under scrutiny

It's A Wonder looks like one to watch at the jumps in Hastings tomorrow. Photo / Trish Dunell

One of the biggest race meetings of the jumping season at Hastings tomorrow will be preceded by a different, but equally important, meeting today.

Tomorrow's programme includes both the $50,000 Hawke's Steeples and $50,000 Hawke's Bay Hurdles, the sort of stake money jumps trainers believe their elite jumpers should be racing for.

But many, if not all, of the trainers heavily involved in jumps racing are concerned about its future and they meet with New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing bosses today to discuss where the sport is heading.

"One of the key factors is money and stakes at the lower levels," says former Olympian equestrian and successful jumps trainer Harvey Wilson.

"The major races this weekend are great but the $10,000 lower grade jumps races [three carded tomorrow] make it very hard to keep owners involved — and even trainers," says Wilson.

"Especially as it can take so long to get some of these horses to the races and they have limited opportunities."

Jumps racing has rarely had such an uncertain future in New Zealand, especially with the possibility it will disappear from Ellerslie next year.

Wilson and fellow trainers want to know what NZTR plans to do to secure the future of the good jumping races that are traditionally run at Ellerslie, as well as the overall jumping industry.

"I am just one trainer but there are plenty of others worried too ... we want to know there is a future for jumps racing for the horses and the younger participants getting into that side of the industry.

"A lot of very talented horsepeople who do tough jobs like breaking horses in, trackwork and trials riding educating horses, have a direct connection to jumps racing and we would hate to see jumps racing fade away and us lose those people," Wilson said. "We as an industry simply can't afford to."

NZTR chief executive Bernard Saundry has reiterated the code supports jumps racing and sees a future for it in New Zealand but is adamant it needs reinventing, even if that only means around the racing calendar.

"I have been through this in Victoria, when jumps racing was under threat for different reasons, and we worked hard to rebuild it then," says Saundry. "But it also hard to put extra money into stakes when the field sizes continue to go down.

"So we want to talk to these jumps trainers and let them know NZTR are open to ideas and securing a future for jumps racing."

Ideas being bandied about include a Queen's Birthday carnival at a smaller centre to focus on jumps racing as a destination festival, like Victoria's famous Warrnambool carnival, and even every second Sunday having a North Island meeting dedicated to jumps racing and highweights to spotlight those horses, as well as giving many flat jockeys and trainers a day off racing.

"All these things and others are possible which is why we are having this meeting," he says.

After today's talking tomorrow's action on the track should be a bit more fun, with Hastings looking likely to provide excellent winter footing.

That should help Wilson's classy It's A Wonder, who seems happiest rolling along on the speed on better winter tracks. "This weekend should suit him and he has to be hard to beat — but these races are never easy," says Wilson.

The problem for It's A Wonder is key rival Mesmerize also seems at his best on drier tracks so could outkick It's A Wonder, as he did in the Waikato Steeples under similar conditions two starts ago.