MORE major jumps races outside Warrnambool's famous May carnival are cementing the city as the jumps capital of Australia, champion jockey Steven Pateman says.
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Pateman, who won the opening race of Warrnambool's super Sunday jumps meeting, revealed jockeys viewed the cross-country course as the best in the land and were delighted more lucrative races like the $100,000 Tom Corrigan Hurdle and Thackeray Steeplechase were being staged there.
"Warrnambool is the home of jumps racing," Pateman said.
"It's the MCG of the sport. There's so much history, tradition, atmosphere and heritage connected with jumps racing at Warrnambool. It has to be one of the best jumps courses in the world.
"It's just great that an extra four feature jumps races are run at Warrnambool. All the jumps jockeys love coming to ride at Warrnambool.
"We get well looked after by the Warrnambool Racing Club and the patrons who attend the meetings - in town (Melbourne) we're just looked on as riff-raff."
The 27-year-old took a swipe at decision makers who had put jumps racing under so much pressure during the past few years. "Jumps racing has been controlled by people in the metropolitan area.
"People paying $10 for a latte have been making it difficult for the sport to continue.
"We were dictated to by people who haven't ridden on a merry-go-round, a rocking horse, a pony, let alone a racehorse.
"Country clubs like Warrnambool understand the sport better. We've got good facilities at Sandown but it's like playing at Etihad Stadium. There's no real atmosphere like riding at Warrnambool.
"The new jumps have been great for the sport. Racing Victoria and the latt? sippers underestimated how passionate people are about jumps racing.
"It was really tough for the jumps jockeys last year. We were always on edge when we rode in races."
The talented horseman said he hoped jumps races would be incident-free.
"We've got some reliable jumpers running around now.
"We understand there's going to be an accident or incident from time to time but it's nothing like which has been projected by some ill-informed people," Pateman said.
"I'm expecting big fields in the Lafferty Hurdle and the Crisp Steeplechase which will be run at Warrnambool on August 1. They should be quality jumping races."
Pateman's comments came after a high-class jumping display at Warrnambool on Sunday.
For the first time in two months, one of the key performance indicators which had been set by Racing Victoria at the start of the jumps season was reached, with 25 starters contesting the three jumping races, up on RVL's average of eight per race.
Sunday's incident-free meeting, also saw the rate of falls drop below RVL's target of three per cent, hitting 2.95 per cent.
It's been one month since the last fall happened when Better Than One tumbled over at Hamilton on June 8.
The rate of horse fatalities remains outside the target of 0.65 per cent of starters but has dropped from 1.18 per cent to 0.74 per cent in the last month.
To meet the target, another 38 runners must safely compete in jumps races.
