Racing: Black And Bent to stay in Victoria

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Buoyed by the rise in prizemoney and a solid commitment from the State Government and Racing Victoria, jumps racing is likely to receive another fillip with Black And Bent expected to race in Victoria throughout the year.

Managing part-owner Mike Symons told the Herald Sun plans to take Australia's best jumper to Japan had been ruled out and a trip to England seemed less likely.

Symons said the two options for Black And Bent at the Cheltenham festival in England had been reduced to one because of the presence of Big Bucks, a winner of his past 14 starts over jumps, who is regarded as the long-distance champion jumper.

"We wouldn't take him on because we wouldn't be able to beat him," Symons said.

The Champion Hurdle (3200m), run in the second week of March, is the better option for Black And Bent, but odds of him heading there are lengthening. Symons said the 6-year-old, about three weeks away from resuming, had a host of options just by staying at home.

"There's the challenge of competing on the world stage, but the flip side is that you have the best horse domestically and you have an enhanced jumps programme with more prizemoney," Symons said.

"And you are trying to draw more people into the sport and for them to become interested in it. If you take the headline horse out of Australia and you send him to England, they quickly fall off the radar."

Symons, the innovative chairman of the Melbourne Racing Club and regarded by many as jumps racing's "white knight", said there was definitely a sense of looking after the local product.

Black And Bent won the Grand National and Houlahan Hurdles last year to win the Champion Jumper Of The Year title for the second year.

In other jumping news, Warrnambool trainer Aaron Purcell has cottoned on to a successful formula - buy a proven European in a bid to win a major Australian staying race.

But there is a twist.

Purcell has bought a proven hurdler in a bid to win the Warrnambool Grand Annual Steeplechase.

Dhaafer, trained in England by Alan King, will enter quarantine at Cheltenham in England on Friday if he passes vet tests today.

The 5-year-old is expected to arrive at Purcell's stables late next month and be put into work for the 5500m Annual, which is run in the first week of May.

"We're very confident he will pass the vet test," he told the Warrnambool Standard.

"We've bought him to run in the Grand Annual and the Grand National Steeplechase. They are the two races we have in mind for him.

"We had British bloodstock agents looking for a horse that would be suitable to run in the two feature races. This horse ticked all the boxes which we thought needed to be ticked."

Purcell has paid A$40,000 for Dhaafer, who ran second in a hurdle at Leicester this month. It will cost A$20,000 to bring him here.

Purcell will syndicate the horse, with an Annual start used as the selling point.

"We'll be doing all things on a cost basis. We're confident we can get rid of the shares," he said. "The bloodstock agents in Britain want Dhaafer to succeed here as they want to break into the jumping market in Australia."