I'd somehow doubt that they were racing over jumps at over 60km/h - that's sprinting speed.
I watched it last year live, and can tell you they were going up around that speed Shadow. You may doubt, but until you have actually watched a horse brush/jump (whatever you may wish to call it) here in Australia then you can comment. In Europe, horses are jumping solid fences or hurdles, not an upside broom stick, with a flight made of aluminum. They also run the horses slowly, so they can last the distance, and the tracks are significantly larger, and designed for National Hunt. The jockeys also have a different seat aboard the animal, and the stirrup leathers are much longer. The Australian horses run on the usual city circuits or provincial circuits, which due to size/logistics, are tights. The jockeys have a different seat, and most sit short in the saddle. Its a totally different world here than there.
My friend and I, both came down from Sydney to meet Silent Witness that particular weekend. We were also invited to Moonee Valley by the Racing Manager, to watch the big steeplechase. We watched in disgrace and horror at the two jumps races that were on. The hurdle race was terrible, we saw a group of them just rushing like idiots through the jump on the straight before crashing to their mercy. All the horses that fell had to be destroyed, including one that broke its neck. It was a terrible sight to behold, and made me rethink about the position of the sport in Australia.
The steeple chase was not much better. Like the hurdles, where one should not rush like a bull at a gate, they did just that, rush like a bull at a gate. It didn't help that the top jumper, Spanish Symbol, brushed through the first gate, and then fell and snapped his both front legs upon landing.
What I would have rather seen was new rules and regulations implemented, rather than the Racing Minister (who mind you is married to a lawyer/animal activist) scrap the sport altogether. Many peoples lives, particularly some trainers, are at stake because of this decision. I know of 5 trainers in Victoria, who specifically only train the jumpers, and not the flat horses. They either have to pack up shop and move to South Australia, where the sport is now all question marks as well, or refocus their operations on flat horses. Which is very costly. I also have read of one trainer who said if such a decision came into effect immediately he would "shoot all his horses with a gun."
Rather than using common sense, and doing a remodel of the sport, the government has bowed down to the animal rights and RSPCA. The best solution would have been to have brought forward a third party management crisis team with respectable track records and get them to work together writing a report and how they would restructure the sport again. Bring in the risk managers, OH&S folk, as well as accredited jumps trainers both locally and internationally, accredited jumps riders locally and internationally, track designers, track managers, and the like. Let them work together to solve an issue that is pretty simple in my opinion to be fixed.
If it were my project, I would honestly relocate all the jumps racing out of the metropolitan region of suburban Melbourne. The tracks are not fit to facilitate or accommodate such racing. It should be honestly all relocated to Warrnambool, about 3 to 4 hours from Melbourne, on the seaboard between South Australia and Victoria. The track is huge, and has been known as one of the best tracks in Australia because of its great size. That is what you need when you jump a horse, SPACE. The horses should be bred purposely for jumps racing, and not be "recycled" ex flat horses that were considered "useless" or too "slow" for flat racing. That is another HUGE problem, the animals are usually given their ticket after 4 or 5 weeks over the jumps in a bull ring, before running in a "jumps trial." From what I have been told on other forums and this one, the Euro's don't get broken in until they are at least 4 or 5. Then for 12 to 18 months are slowly schooled properly over solid jumps to learn some sort of respect. How does a horse respect a jump when it has only seen them a couple of times in 4 or 5 weeks?
Would also love to see the jumps be replaced with hedges, and solid constructions, than fences made of aluminium and broomsticks. Also feel a need for the jockeys to be properly trained and accredited and should be forced to ride in Europe to learn how to properly ride.
Then there is the issue of the speed. This is about 50% of the problem. The speed these animals are running is just pathetic. It is so dangerous, its actually frightening to watch. All of our hosts said they would not watch the hurdle or steeple until it was finished, and they warned us "Watch the speed, its like a flash of lightning."
Anyway that is my whinge, but no one will listen to a nobody from Sydney, especially when you are married (that is the Victorian Racing Minister) to a high court lawyer, who happens to be an animal activist.
