STEEPLECHASING and Warrnambool’s famous Grand Annual have a future with racing chiefs weighing up either a one-year or three-year guarantee.
The revelation came hours after jumps supporters endured a sleepless night as they worried about the future of steeplechases, including the Grand Annual — the centrepiece of Warrnambool’s May carnival that dates back 138 years.
The reassurance failed to head off stinging criticism from the Australian Jumps Racing Association and sparked angry exchanges between its president Rodney Rae and Racing Victoria Limited chief executive officer Rob Hines.
Hines yesterday revealed Thursday’s board move to defer a decision about steeplechasing was not about axing the sport.
“The board had a long discussion about the performance of steeplechasing and they were considering if it should have one year or three years (reprieve). It’s not about stopping steeplechasing,” he said.
“I expect it to continue. It is still a matter for the board to consider and the board will decide on October 7. My expectation is that steeplechasing will continue and the discussions are around how long and with what KPIs.”
Hines said he was stunned jumps racing supporters had reacted so negatively to Thursday night’s board resolution to defer a decision on the future of steeplechasing.
He said the decision to guarantee hurdle racing for three years was a major positive for jumps racing and so too was the move to consider further improvements to steeplechasing.
In an exclusive interview with The Standard, Hines denied RVL had shifted the goal posts by measuring the success of hurdle races and steeplechases individually despite earlier this year saying the sport would be judged on whether it met key performance indicators about horse fall and fatality rates.
The sport met the target rate for fatalities but not falls. Hines said hurdle racing had met all the targets but steeplechasing had missed the fall KPI.
“It has only been separated because of absolutely patent differences between the success of hurdle racing and steeplechasing,” he said.
He described the success of hurdle and steeplechasing as “chalk and cheese”.
“Hurdle racing has earned the right to go on for three years but steeplechasing has a bit more work to do.”
He said the board was considering some technical changes to the bigger obstacles used in steeplechases, like making the sight line deeper.
Hines suggested the new, more imposing steeplechase obstacles had taken some time for horses to get used to.
AJRA president Rodney Rae said the move to defer a decision on steeplechasing was “poor”. “RVL has done the right thing in giving hurdle racing three years,” he said.
“But the whole basis of our submission was to remove the uncertainty and restore confidence back into the industry to facilitate investment.
“This decision retains the uncertainty. The uncertainty we have had over the last few years has really impacted on our horse population, the numbers have dropped from 1200 to 400 in the last few years.
“For them to come out and put it off and deliberate for another month I think is disgraceful.”
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