Australian racing
, but I'm too tired to complete the card so I'll call it a night.
Think there is only South Australia and Victoria ( think they were going to ban it in 2010) that still allows jumps racing, as it’s been banned in all other states.
They ran the Grand National Hurdle at Lakeside last night , which I think is the richest hurdle race in Australia, Cougar Express won the race , with Self Sense losing his unbeaten hurdles record . Stewards have adjourned the inquiry into the race tactics of the third horse Bit if a Lad ( actually asked jockey if his tactics set the race up for the winner ), and want to examine betting patterns into the race .
Perhaps anyone from Australia could let us know where the current debate is on abolishing jumps racing in Australia .It would be sad if it were to end .
Think there’s less than 100 jump races run in Australia and a lot of those are on mixed fiat / jump cards . Steve Pateman who has been champion jump jockey on numerous occasions has only ridden 360 plus winners in a career which started out in 2001 .. so it’s a shrinking sport .
But maybe someone from Australia can tell us how much it has been reduced over the years
This from 2 days ago
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-04/h ... s/10060198
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And they have few if any jumps bred horses over there . Nearly all are ex flat racers . I remember when Gai Waterhouse had her first jumps winner Valediction ( ran in the crisp chase in the early hours today) , then decided to run the ex Henry Cecil Glencadam Gold( one time fav for Melbourne Cup and group 1 winner in Australia ) over hurdles .. That raised a few eyebrows. But she said
“Horses are competitive animals and these two had lost that edge. If they weren’t doing this they’d be mopping around a paddock but jumping has got them keen again and loving life,” s
“Horses love to jump. Only positives can come from this for the horses.”