WARRNAMBOOL Racing Club may yet be a winner in the long-running jumps saga with the club preparing a bid to host the time-honoured Hiskens Steeplechase.
Under changes announced last week for jumps racing to continue from this year, Moonee Valley will no longer host jumps racing - including the Hiskens Steeplechase which is considered the Cox Plate of jumping.
The $200,000 A. V. Hiskens Steeplechase was first run in 1936 and the weight-for-age contest attracts the elite of jumps racing with past winners including champions Crisp, Strasbourg, Marlborough, St Steven and Some Are Bent.
Warrnambool club president Marg Lucas confirmed yesterday talks were under way with racing authorities with a view to Warrnambool playing a more major role in hosting jumps events later in the winter jumps season.
"We'll certainly be putting up our hand to host the Hiskens," she said.
"The way the future of jumps racing seems to be unfolding is that there will be changes to the program and possibly an opportunity for Warrnambool to host another major steeplechase towards the end of the season."
Currently horses are prepared for the Warrnambool May Racing Carnival and the Oakbank Carnival at Easter while a second crop target races like the Grand National and Hiskens mid-year.
Mrs Lucas said hosting another major race meeting later in the season would be a huge boost for south-west trainers and owners keen to target another feature race on their home track.
"I've always been keen to lasso the National Steeplechase but not having the Hiskens at Moonee Valley opens up the program for another high-quality race to be run at another course," she said.
"If we can get funding for it we would be in the No. 1 position to host that race later in the season.
"The Hiskens is usually the last feature. There looks like there will be changes to programming and it would be fair to say we stand a good chance to host another good race."
Mrs Lucas said the Warrnambool committee fully supported jumps racing and the challenge would be to fund such an event.
"We're certainly talking to people at the moment,'' she said
"We would need the appropriate prizemoney to stage that high-end type of event but I think we can do it," she said.
"The Warrnambool course is unique in world terms. The crowd can see every jump in the cross-country event and jumps racing at Warrnambool is a great spectacle."
The club president said that another top quality jumps event would likely be run along similar lines to the Brierly Steeplechase which is held on the first day of the May carnival.
She said announcements in the past week had been a huge boost for jumps racing and the whole racing industry.
"Things are looking up. It's a hell of a lot better than where we were six or eight weeks ago.
"We're grateful for the opportunity to thrash out issues that will see jumps racing go forward," Mrs Lucas said.
"We want to be the best we can possibly be.
"There will be changes and hopefully that all works out to a successful season.
"Warrnambool has a great tradition of people turning out to support jumps events and we need that to continue,'' she said.
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