Is Racing South Australia simply feeding the Crocodile?

“Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last. All of them hope that the storm will pass before their turn comes to be devoured. But I fear greatly that the storm will not pass. It will rage and it will roar ever more loudly, ever more widely.”

Sir Winston Churchill, January 20, 1940

A long-running campaign orchestrated within the racing industry has succeeded in killing off jumps racing in South Australia.

Racing SA, with the support of the Oakbank Racing Club, announced in October that next year Oakbank’s famous Easter races would not include jumps races. even though the Oakbank meeting is the biggest crowd-puller in the South Australia’s racing calendar.

It justified its decision on the basis that South Australia has only 10 jumps horses and 2 jumps trainers. However, a Jumps Racing SA survey demonstrated that South Australia has at least 32 jumps horses in the hands of 13 trainers and there are a few more trainers willing to train jumpers.

The Australian Jumps Racing Association offered to contribute $500,000 over five years to ensure the future of Oakbank’s two iconic jumps races.

Oakbank’s Easter meeting is one of the world’s largest picnic meetings and jumps racing has featured there since 1876.

Consequently, the Oakbank Racing Club’s decision to support the end of jumps racing has provoked outrage and mobilised a range of well-known identities including Sydney horse trainer Gai Waterhouse.

‘Have they all gone mad over there ... it’s just ridiculous...

‘Oakbank at Easter is one of the jewels in the crown of Australian racing but without jumps, it’s just another meeting.

‘As it stands this decision is a nail in the coffin for all racing – not just jumps and that’s so sad because racing brings people together in a wonderful ­social way.’

Because the Easter meeting is conducted over a few days, it is a substantial contributor to South Australia’s economy.

Despite all this, Racing SA and the current Oakbank Racing Club Committee are not moving.

Racing SA’s argument that jumps racing is not viable any longer is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Racing SA has not honoured commitments to provide training support for jumps racing, refused to conduct jumping trials and reduced prize money.

The question is why have racing authorities been so determined to shut down the jumps?

The answer has consequences well beyond jumps racing and indeed well beyond racing.

To make sense of a campaign that dates back to at least 2012, it is only necessary to turn to the RSPCA.

In welcoming this decision, the RSPCA’s South Australian animal welfare advocate Rebekah Eyers said

‘Aside from the welfare issues, the reputational damage done to the SA racing industry has been considerable and attendances have declined, including at Oakbank.’

The South Australian RSPCA’s website is blunter:

‘The decision comes in the face of irrefutable evidence that jumps racing is … an activity that has well and truly lost its social license.’

Sport is a business, and horse racing is a big business. If the inner suburban elites decide that an activity offends their sensitivities, it can have commercial consequences ― think sponsorships, corporate events and political support.

In 2014 the South Australian Jockey Club attempted to shut down jumps at South Australia’s main racetrack, Morphettville.

Then CEO Brenton Wilkinson said that SAJC Board:

‘a couple of years ago made a decision that we don’t believe that it’s appropriate to hold jumps racing at Morphettville (even though) statistics from jumps racing have improved greatly, and the stewards over here do a good job managing the trainers and the jockeys and the horses…. (Jumps racing is) detrimental to our brand.’

Corporate entities who ‘were thinking of holding a non-race day function, a Christmas dinner or mid-year work dinner for their staff and clients have then declined to continue because we have jumps racing at Morphettville.’

‘The protesters have been less this year (2014) which is great but, you know, when people turn up to race at Morphettville and they have to walk through a group of people that are vocal… it’s not a good experience for getting people to Morphettville.’

We consistently point out that the Greens and the Animal Justice Party and extreme environmental and animal rights groups are not like other political parties and interest groups. They are on an ideological mission for which there is no compromise.

Adelaide Advertiser columnist Caleb Bond belled the cat when he wrote earlier this year:

‘…. a campaign to eradicate jumps racing from SA altogether… is supported by some prominent trainers and figures in the SA racing industry who stupidly believe that if they offer up jumps racing as a sacrificial lamb, the rest of the sport will be left alone by protesters. They’re just useful fools.

Once the activists have claimed the jumps, they’ll come for the whip. And then they’ll come for the flats races.’

As if on cue, the Greens provided evidence for Mr Bond’s assessment in November.

The Victorian Racing Club has improved the image of the Melbourne Cup by increasing health checks on overseas horses, a consequence of which was fewer international horses being entered for this year’s Cup.

Nevertheless, on Cup Day this year, the Greens said that:

‘it’s time to shut down commercial horse racing. The gambling-fuelled commercial horse racing industry is inhumane, deadly and incompatible with animal welfare. To shut down commercial horse racing in Australia, the Greens have a clear Horse Racing Transition Plan.’

Despite this reality, recreational shooters, hunters, farmers and those involved in the racing industry cannot be delusional.

That is why we focus on exposing the mindset of ideologues and its consequence while remembering that, while facts and data are necessary to support the legitimacy of a sport or recreation which is unfashionable in the inner metropolitan suburbs in today’s culture, they may not be sufficient by themselves to negate the influence of social licence.

By Rick Brown