By LAURA PLACELLA
Despite pressure to ban jumps racing, Racing Victoria has this year added a new feature jumps carnival and added $510,000 to the available prize pool.
Every Victorian jumps race was allocated a chunk of the prize money, with Australia’s richest, the Grand National Steeplechase, receiving a $100,000 boost.
The new event – originally planned as the Super Jumps Festival at Sportsbet-Ballarat racecourse – was held in August. Weather and track safety issues caused some problems, with the flat races in what was originally planned to be a two-day carnival being relocated and then cancelled, and jumps races held a day later.
RSPCA Victoria’s animal welfare policy manager Mhairi Roberts said she believed nothing could be done to make jumps racing safer because of the sport’s “inherent suffering”.
"There is a high level of injuries and a high levels of deaths every year, so we would actually like jumps racing to be banned," Ms Roberts said.
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Jumps racing is still popular in Victoria.
“It’s banned in every other state except for South Australia, so we really hope Victoria will follow suit.”
RSPCA stands against Racing Victoria's strengthened commitment to jumps racing and joins many administrations, such as The Greens, in advocating for a legislative ban.
Tony Rosolini, trainer of the successful jumps horse Undergroundfighter, said Racing Victoria's efforts over the past decade had made safety “as good as it’s going to get”.
Off the back of those safety improvements, he said the Grand National’s prize money might be boosted to “$1 million” in the coming years.
Despite Undergroundfighter being brought down in a jumps race earlier this month, Mr Rosolini says safety was “a big priority” for the industry.
“People don’t realise that jumps horses get pampered. Once they’re going over jumps they extend their lives another three, four, five years,” he said.
"I love my jumps horses ... I want them to be as safe as possible, but at the same time you still want the horses to be able to jump."