Racing: Jumps decision blow to NZ

John Wheeler believes Victoria's decision to end jumps racing will probably kill the sport in New Zealand.

Wheeler said he expected Racing Victoria's decision yesterday to end jumps racing at the completion of winter racing in the state next year, but declared he was still devastated.

It was like the day before a major storm - you could feel it coming.

Wheeler is one of New Zealand's best industry thinkers as well as the country's major player in jumps racing in addition to playing a big part in flat racing.

"The whole thing was set up for Racing Victoria to make this decision," said a disappointed but resigned Wheeler yesterday.

"The Racing Minister's wife is a lawyer for the animal activists, that tells you a lot."

Animal activists in Victoria complained so strongly about jumps racing a decade ago that Racing Victoria reduced the size of the fences, which exacerbated the issue by making horses jump the fences faster, thereby increasing the danger element.

"It was all put in place for Racing Victoria to give jumping the flick," said Wheeler.

The Taranaki trainer does not buy into the danger element for horses as seen by others. "You will always have danger to horses in horse racing, regardless of whether it's flat or jumps racing.

"I've lost a couple of my best horses lately, All In Black and Bennyosler, to broken legs on the flat and paddock accidents."

Wheeler says animal activists are grossly misguided.

"The more urban-based people get the more they get away from what happens on the land.

"If you mentioned bobby calves to these people they wouldn't know what you were talking about. They wouldn't know that thousands of them are killed four or five days after birth.

"Most of them wouldn't know cows have calves so they can have milk."

The famous Oakbank carnival in South Australia, a state which condemns the Victorian decision, will be affected by yesterday's ruling. John Wheeler has had a massive footprint at Oakbank.

"I think the biggest crowd they've had to a Golden Slipper in Sydney is 37,000, yet the smallest Oakbank crowd I can remember on a rainy day is 50,000," he said.

Racing Victoria announced along with its ban a promise to add A$1 million to what was the 2011 Victorian-based Warrnambool jumping carnival, which follows Oakbank.

"I don't care if they put A$10 million into that, it won't work," said Wheeler, who predicts 200 to 300 horses a year in Australia will have to be culled.

"They're not all able to be hunters or eventing horses."

Victoria's leading jumps jockey, Craig Durden, an eight-time Corrigan medallist and a semi-regular in New Zealand, has a sage warning for the industry. "They've allowed animal liberationists to have their way and I don't believe that's the last we'll hear from them in the industry."

Wheeler could find a positive in a tsunami and has already won the world's richest jumping race, Japan's Nakayama Jump.

"I've always wanted to have a crack at the excitement of jumps racing in England and Ireland. Maybe I'll do that instead."

Meanwhile, the Australian Jumping Racing Association has vowed to fight the decision.

Its president, Rodney Rae, has not ruled out legal action against the Racing Victoria Ltd board.

Yesterday, the association was busy organising all industry shareholders to meet as early as Monday to discuss Racing Victoria's decision.

- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: AAP