Show jumps the colour of your cash

By Brad Kingsbury
LEADING thoroughbred racing commentator Deane Lester believes that the future of jumps racing in Victoria is firmly in the hands – or more accurately wallets – of its rank and file supporters.
Racing Victoria Limited (RVL) has announced that the 2010 jumps racing season will be the last in Victoria but Lester said that situation would quickly change if revenue from jumping increased.
The Cranbourne-based racing expert, widely regarded as the best form analyst in Australia, is a staunch fan of jumps racing and said that if punters and supporters of the sport were prepared to bet on jumps events this season, RVL would be forced to back down, regardless of any backlash from animal rights agitators.
“RVL’s recent stance is a smokescreen about fatalities. It basically comes down to dollars and cents,” he said.
“People don’t bet on jumps racing and that’s the bottom line.”
Lester, who has been involved in the racing industry professionally for 20 years, said that the current situation was the result of misguided decision-making too appease pressure groups over several years and the crunch had now come.
“I think it’s been badly handled for many years,” he said.
“The jumps have been compromised.
“Jumping is when a horse pushes off its back legs and jumps over an obstacle but now they just include the jump in their stride.”
“The actual mechanics of the sport have changed to appease certain groups. Those groups wanted less fatalities but have actually created more.”
He said that the time had come for grass roots jumps racing supporters to fight back.
“The only way to do that was to raise the bottom line and Lester added that he was happy to be the spokesman for a jumps racing betting campaign next season.
“If jumps fans want to see jumping continue it’s simple – bet on them next season,” he said. “If 5000 fans bet $20 on each race there’s another $100,000 in each jumps pool.
“The average jumps race is about a $90,000 hold (on the TAB) which is poor. But if that lifted to say $300,000 it would be the biggest betting race of the day.
“That would scare the pants off RVL and they simply couldn’t turn their backs on the money.”
Tabcorp wagering opposed to corporate bookmaking was also an issue but that Lester said that could be addressed with common sense if all parties were committed to working for the same outcome.
“It might get the ‘corporates’ off side but then there’s nothing to stop them being good blokes and saying ‘okay we’ll give four percent back to the industry on jumps events instead of the one percent we give now’.
“They might even sponsor a jumps race,” he said.
“If that happened RVL would have to support jumps racing and find a way for it to continue.”