Slip and steeple
July 7th 2008 08:27
Although much of the excitement has been generated this jumping season by the influx of the first-season performers with stakes-winning flat ability - and with sometimes hefty price tags as yearlings - it was the old fashioned (and unfashionable) Ginolad who went on to win the Grand National Steeple of 2008. He completed the difficult jumping double by being the fourth horse in history to complete the Grand Annual Steeple (at Warrnambool) and Grand National Double.
(photo: Vince Caliguri)
He now has won prizemoney of $375,00 since being picked up at a mixed sale for $900 and having an uncertain future because of limited speed on the flat.
Toulouse Lautrec fell (slipped and dislodged his jockey) in front of the grandstand with a lap still to run. He then continued on riderless, jumping each fence with the pack and putting undue pressure on the leader Geeorb, which would have affected his chances of seeing out the trip. It was only at the last fence where Toulouse Lautrec would decide not to jump, racing around the outside of the fence but still running out a clear (in his mind) winner. It was at this point - as he ran around the outside of the wing - when Ginolad would lose his concentration watching Toulouse more closely than the final fence, and crash through and nearly dislodge his rider.
Two horses fell in the steeple - both unharmed and both jockeys uninjured.
It was disappointing to find the animal rights activists protesting at the races and denouncing the race as barbaric, using the simple fact of the tumbles as proof positive. Their minds made up.
Horses fall and tumble every day. They need not be in a race of any type. They run, they slip, they tumble. I have been on top of horses who knuckle and slip as they walk, nearly falling face down to the dirt (where I might or might not have ended up on occasions).
I still welcome the debate about jumping races. But not the dogma. Not the blind platitudes and slogans on placards. We are willing to talk and compromise (further) and make racing even safer for horses. But the debate needs level heads from both opposing camps. Saturday was not a debacle. It was a jumping spectacle as it should be with competitive racing and no casualties. Ginolad may well have been subjected to a life unbearable, forgotten in some paddock with little care. But instead he has a life as he knows it, as he is bred to be, as a working horse. Sometimes I think it is forgotten by some that the horse is a working animal for man. Always has been. And racing far better than many other tasks asked of the horse.
But how to improve matters.
The points raised by the jumping fraternity to save jumps racing are sensible. Better sighting of the jumps (sightlines) already implemented.
But let's take some of their suggestions even further.
Track rating.
It does appear that many falls are due to horses slipping on firm tracks after jumping. But tracks cannot be prepared as dead-to-slow to benefit the jumpers at the expense of flat racing.
A radical alternative would be to provide Sandown as a jumps specific venue through the jumping season. Perhaps a Sunday program of all jumps races (or the majority being jumping races. Knowing that the track will be presented as soft it may also appeal to wet track flat performers who may be allocated 2 or 3 races on a 7 race Sunday program).
And only one type of fence to be used: the steeplechase fence that makes horses actually leap and jump.
We may have to think laterally to keep jumping races in Victoria. And perhaps introduce our own version of the National Hunt in Britain at a designated track prepared especially for jumps racing.
Last Saturday was a successful day for jumps racing. One of few so far for the season, but an example of how it should be. How we hope it will be every time.
The grand steeplechase de Paris. Watch some exceptional jumping in this:
Ginolad on his way to win the Grand Annual
(photo: Vince Caliguri)
He now has won prizemoney of $375,00 since being picked up at a mixed sale for $900 and having an uncertain future because of limited speed on the flat.
Toulouse Lautrec fell (slipped and dislodged his jockey) in front of the grandstand with a lap still to run. He then continued on riderless, jumping each fence with the pack and putting undue pressure on the leader Geeorb, which would have affected his chances of seeing out the trip. It was only at the last fence where Toulouse Lautrec would decide not to jump, racing around the outside of the fence but still running out a clear (in his mind) winner. It was at this point - as he ran around the outside of the wing - when Ginolad would lose his concentration watching Toulouse more closely than the final fence, and crash through and nearly dislodge his rider.
Two horses fell in the steeple - both unharmed and both jockeys uninjured.
It was disappointing to find the animal rights activists protesting at the races and denouncing the race as barbaric, using the simple fact of the tumbles as proof positive. Their minds made up.
Horses fall and tumble every day. They need not be in a race of any type. They run, they slip, they tumble. I have been on top of horses who knuckle and slip as they walk, nearly falling face down to the dirt (where I might or might not have ended up on occasions).
I still welcome the debate about jumping races. But not the dogma. Not the blind platitudes and slogans on placards. We are willing to talk and compromise (further) and make racing even safer for horses. But the debate needs level heads from both opposing camps. Saturday was not a debacle. It was a jumping spectacle as it should be with competitive racing and no casualties. Ginolad may well have been subjected to a life unbearable, forgotten in some paddock with little care. But instead he has a life as he knows it, as he is bred to be, as a working horse. Sometimes I think it is forgotten by some that the horse is a working animal for man. Always has been. And racing far better than many other tasks asked of the horse.
But how to improve matters.
The points raised by the jumping fraternity to save jumps racing are sensible. Better sighting of the jumps (sightlines) already implemented.
But let's take some of their suggestions even further.
Track rating.
It does appear that many falls are due to horses slipping on firm tracks after jumping. But tracks cannot be prepared as dead-to-slow to benefit the jumpers at the expense of flat racing.
A radical alternative would be to provide Sandown as a jumps specific venue through the jumping season. Perhaps a Sunday program of all jumps races (or the majority being jumping races. Knowing that the track will be presented as soft it may also appeal to wet track flat performers who may be allocated 2 or 3 races on a 7 race Sunday program).
And only one type of fence to be used: the steeplechase fence that makes horses actually leap and jump.
We may have to think laterally to keep jumping races in Victoria. And perhaps introduce our own version of the National Hunt in Britain at a designated track prepared especially for jumps racing.
Last Saturday was a successful day for jumps racing. One of few so far for the season, but an example of how it should be. How we hope it will be every time.
The grand steeplechase de Paris. Watch some exceptional jumping in this:
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