Just to prove there is nothing new under the sun:
From the RP Cuttings library:
<< Letter: Lethal
Published: 27/03/1999 (Features) W Shacklady
W Shacklady calls for the abandonment of the water jump:
I WAS glad to see the issue of water jumps raised recently. They should have been consigned to history many moons ago, as they no longer serve any useful purpose, if indeed they ever did.
I suspect that their purpose was to provide the crowd with a spectacle, as a good proportion of them are situated in front of the stand. However, the only `spectacle' they are capable of providing is broken/damaged backs or hind legs swinging uselessly.
As Dai Williams pointed out, horses are not schooled over them, so they are, in effect, a trap. This argument was used for the modification of Becher's Brook after some high-profile casualties.
Will it need a Gold Cup star or household name to be killed at a water jump before the wheels start to turn? I sincerely hope not, and would suggest that all the voices so concerned with whip abuse could concentrate their efforts on something a tad more lethal.
If, as stated, the last water jump in Ireland was removed due to trainer/owner pressure, then why not employ the same approach here? It would need 100 per cent support, but I can't believe there is any owner or trainer who would be distraught at the demise of these deathtraps.
For the Jockey Club's director of field services, Tony Goodhew, to rely on statistics to try to justify water jumps is a bit of a cop out.
Britain is a country obsessed with damned statistics. Any time someone is in a sticky situation, they reel out loads of impressing-sounding stats. Well, statistics are like a lamp-post to a drunken man: great to lean on, but useless for illumination.
How many horses in Ireland since 1966 have lived to fight another day? Impossible to answer, I know, but has racing lost out in any way? I think not.
I know injuries to horses can occur anywhere, but surely it makes sense to take any step not to the detriment of racing to reduce these injuries. The removal of water jumps from every track would be a start.
W SHACKLADY Southport Merseyside >>
Also following the death of Symbol of Success and another horse int he same month:
<< Murphy: water jumps should be ripped up
Published: 20/03/1999 (News) GRAHAM DENCH
LEADING northern trainer Ferdy Murphy yesterday added his voice to calls for the abolition of water jumps following the deaths of two well-known horses in the space of five days.
Murphy, who claimed to have had several horses injured at such obstacles, described them as as "an aid to nobody", and called for them to be "ripped up".
Fatal injuries at water jumps befell both Symbol Of Success at Sandown eight days ago and Nearly An Eye at Cheltenham on Wednesday.
Nearly An Eye, trained by Paul Nicholls and a winner six times this season, fell and broke his neck in the Mildmay Of Flete Chase.
At Sandown, Dai Williams' Marlborough Cup winner Symbol Of Success had to be put down after breaking a shoulder in another sickening fall.
Williams left racecourses in no doubt that water jumps, now optional and already removed by around a quarter of racecourses, should be abolished.
He said: "The obstacle is pointless. It's a trap because nobody is required to have one at home for schooling purposes and so the first time a novice chaser sees one is when he gallops over it. They don't come back from falls at the water."
Nicholls was not so critical, but added that he "would not be bothered if there weren't any".
But Murphy insisted: "Water jumps should not be on any racecourse. I've had five horses hurt their backs over the last five years at water jumps. They are a disgrace, an aid to nobody. They should all be ripped up. In Ireland, the last water jump was taken out in 1966, at Leopardstown, as trainers refused to run their horses until it was removed. I wonder what is the point of them."
Sandown has since confirmed in writing that its water jump is to stay, but plans are in hand to remove them at Fontwell and Plumpton.
Clerk of the course David McHarg, who helped open the way for the removal of water jumps when allowed to build a new jumps track at Musselburgh without one, said: "I believe there have been two fatalities at Plumpton's water jump in the last 10 years, and we had two at one Scottish National meeting when I was at Ayr, so it was for safety reasons that we took that one out when allowed to." >>
<< Campaign for abolition of water jumps grows
Howard Wright's Column: Time to get rid of the water jump
Published: 19/03/1999 (News) Howard Wright
DAI WILLIAMS lost his best horse, Symbol Of Success, at the water jump at Sandown a week ago. Kelly Mac lost all chance at the water jump at Plumpton on Monday. Nearly An Eye lost his life at the water jump at Cheltenham on Wednesday.
It's time we lost the water jump altogether.
Whatever the safety figures might say, the obstacle serves no particular purpose any more. It's not a spectacle, since many of the courses which retain a water jump-Sandown and Plumpton among them-tuck it well away from the public. Nor is it a reasonable test of a horse's agility, since there is so little opportunity for preparation.
So what's the point? Better to get rid of them, and thereby remove any possible charge that the obstacle is unsafe.
Either that, or we should copy the Japanese, who, as part of raising the status of jump racing, are introducing higher fences in front of water jumps, "to encourage better concentration".
Published: 03/08/1999 (NEWS) GRAHAM GREEN
MICHAEL CHAPMAN is the latest trainer to demand the abolition of water jumps following the death of his seven-year-old novice chaser, Shahrani, at Market Rasen on Saturday night.
With the Lincolnshire track due to race again on Sunday, clerk of the course Charlie Moore has already begun the process that could result in the obstacle's withdrawal.
While making no promises, Moore, who was also tackled over the water jump by Harvey Smith and Peter Bowen, yesterday asked for his board of directors to be polled on the subject.
Moore said: "If the vote were for removal, I would seek the advice of the Jockey Club inspectorate, and, depending on what they say, we may then make an application to withdraw it."
Chapman's call echoes those of Dai Williams, who, with support from Ferdy Murphy, urged that all water jumps be "ripped up" after Symbol Of Success suffered fatal injuries at Sandown in March.
Only eight days earlier, the Paul Nicholls-trained Nearly An Eye fell and broke his neck at Cheltenham's water jump.
Shahrani is thought to have sustained serious damage to his spinal cord, and Chapman said: "Water jumps favour bad horses and disadvantage good horses who see a stride at a small jump, take off, and only see an expanse of water when in mid-air.
"Shahrani's back legs went in the plastic liner, slipped away from him, and he damaged his spinal chord.
"A lot of courses have got rid of these jumps. I would like them to disappear everywhere, and I certainly hope Market Rasen will act now."
Moore, who said this was the second fatality involving the water jump during his 10 years at the track, sympathised with Chapman's loss, but pointed out that if the water jump is removed, another obstacle would have to be built in its place to meet Jockey Club regulations on the number of jumps over various distances.
