What all of that means is the jumping season could be shortened, as some see May as too early to start it as tracks are often too firm for jumps racing or to prepare the jumpers in the months ahead.
Jumps racing is likely to be conducted on fewer tracks, with the tracks that are used having better jumping facilities, while having more consistent racing at the same venues will aid punters in offering more consistent form to work off.
While the lifeline is suggested as extending for at least three years, the panel recommended NZTR review the performance of jumps racing every year to continue to improve the product.
“If this was purely a decision made on economics jumps racing would be gone,” admits NZTR chief executive Bruce Sharrock.
“But as a lot of people know there are many other factors at play here.
“Jumps racing is pivotal in keeping skilled participants in the industry, people who also act as track work riders, horse breakers and even starting gate attendants,” said Sharrock.
“It also keeps horses racing and can prepare them for a life after racing.
“The panel had an enormous number of submissions and overwhelmingly they were in favour of keeping jumps racing but making changes to make it stronger and more viable.
“We have the recommendations from the panel but we don’t know exactly what the future of jumps racing looks like because we had to go through this process first and reach a decision before we could then plan exactly how to implement that decision.”
While those particular details won’t be released until March, Sharrock was confident the historic Grand National carnival at Riccarton, an August event, would be saved and jumps racing could be seen more regularly on Sundays in winter.
“We also understand from the TAB there are some punters who don’t bet on jumps racing and prefer flat racing only, so we can try and hold the jumping races together. That could mean a predominantly jumps card with a few highweight races to utilise the same jockey pool, or when the jumps races are on the same card as normal flat races, holding them back-to-back rather than having a jumps race followed by a flat race followed by another jumps race.”
NZTR is also hoping to create increased transtasman competition between New Zealand and Victoria, the last bastion of jumps racing in Australia, with that state also going through a review process of jump racing.
Tuesday’s news will be greeted with joy by the small but tight-knit jumping community and the punters and followers who enjoy it, as the code’s future has looked bleak at times in recent years.
Few will enjoy it more than trainer Jessica Brosnan, who was on the seemingly very balanced Jumps Racing Reveiw Panel.
“It was a really fair process and lots of people will be thrilled with the outcome,” Brosnan said.
“I don’t think anybody could argue that jumps racing needed to change and it is a shame it had to come to this to make that happen.
“But it has a chance now and it is up to us to make it work.”
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.
