Ban sought for jumps racing sport

CALLS to end jumps racing for the state’s horseracing industry are continuing following equine deaths during an event at Ballarat Turf Club last month.

On the morning of Sunday 25 August, members of the Animal Justice Party, and the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses met to protest at the site.

Across three separate races, horses Mighty Oasis, Maserartie Bay, and Buffalo Bill were euthanised due to injuries sustained on the track, while two racers were also injured, with one sent to Melbourne in a serious condition.

One of the protestors, Fiona Adin-James, said she was “devastated” to learn about the horses’ deaths.

“There were a few members who could see across the other side of the track,” she said.

“It was clear the green screen was being pulled out which is used to euthanise a horse which is severely injured enough that it can’t be loaded onto a float.”

With more than 20 years’ experience in horse riding and eventing, Ms Adin-James said it’s her view that jumps racing is unnatural for the animals.

“A horse isn’t geared to jump at a gallop,” she said. “It’s against all their natural instincts and their natural gait. The sequence is different from a canter to a gallop.

“At a gallop, all their feet are off the ground at one point in their stride so they take off. They don’t have a chance to assess the height and width [of the obstacle] and get their striding right, they’re forced to jump at speed.

“It’s devastating to have our point proven in such an awful way.”

The state’s racing body Racing Victoria acknowledged the incidents in a statement released the following Monday.

“It is with great sadness that RV acknowledges that three horses, Mighty Oasis, Maserartie Bay, and Buffalo Bill, were humanely euthanised as a result of injuries sustained in three different races at the Ballarat meeting,” the statement said.

“As is standard practice, each fatal incident will be reviewed by the jumps review panel with a postmortem to be conducted on each horse.”

“Whilst the fatal incident rate in Victorian jumps racing reduced by over 60 per cent from 2009 to 2023, there is no denying that the safety record regressed in the 2024 jumps season.”

According to the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses, a dozen racehorses have died throughout the 2024 jumps racing, while Racing Victoria has reported seven.

“[Racing Victoria] only take into account horses that are killed in races,” said Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses campaign director Elio Celotto.

“It’s unfair to exclude horses killed in training and trialling. It’s the racing industry’s attempt to mitigate the statistics.

“There’s about 44 per cent of jumps horses that disappear from one year to the next. Many of those, they’re very difficult to rehome after flats racing let alone jumps racing.

“The solution is simple. You ban jumps racing and replace it with high weight flat races. It’s unacceptable to allow jumps racing to continue.”

Funding for a new training track at Ballarat Racecourse was unveiled in May with more than $1.3 million provided by the State Government, who are allocating $3 million in infrastructure upgrades at racecourses across western Victoria.

Victoria is the last Australian state where jumps racing still occurs, with the sport previously made illegal in South Australia in 2022.