We’re told that there are few things more enjoyable than a day at the races. Associated with the kind of devil-may-care japery that allows one to don a fine hat and drink bubbly before midday, racedays support that fine Australian tradition of shirking work in order to yell loudly at something somewhat sporty.

It didn't end well for Java Star. Photo: Patrick Gorbunovs

We frock up, we have a tipple and we take a punt. No one wears thongs.

On the surface, it all appears quite lovely and so terribly, terribly civilised.

But behind the fashion stakes and the public holiday carnivals there’s a dark, seedy side to horse racing here in Australia and it’s one they really don’t want you to see. That is the practice of forcing horses to hurtle around a long track with the weight of an obese concrete garden gnome on their back while jumping over obstacles. It’s commonly known as jumps racing and it’s distinctly on the nose in the only two states of our nation to still playing host to the anachronism - Victoria and South Australia.

Jumps racing is just over 1 per cent of the total racing industry in terms of turnover but I’d wager it accounts for 99 per cent of industry PR headaches - no mean feat given the ‘colourful’ nature of the Sport of Kings. Yet staggering statistics like a race death rate 18 times greater than for a flats do little to make the spin doctors task easy.

As a Member of Parliament in a state where the local Government generously funds new multi-million dollar facilities and in recent years enabled tax concessions to benefit the SA racing industry (heavens we even obligingly changed the date of a major public holiday for them) they probably feel my glossy little double freebie access all areas passes that dutifully arrive in the Parliamentary post each year are the least they can do.

But I’d never used one - until this weekend. Time to change all that I thought and go take a gander at the solitary jumps race in the Saturday afternoon schedule at Morphettville.

After my brief fashion check posed no barriers (too cold for thongs anyway) a further survey of the various SAJC and RacesSA web and social media sites quickly pulled up a slew of ‘fan photos’ posted by punters and patrons alike of fun days out with a glass in hand and a flutter in the offing. The racing horses themselves often taking centre stage in these crowd initiated happy snaps.

So sitting quietly in the almost empty stands imagine my surprise to find that the mere possession of a camera with intent to take a potentially not-quite-so-happy-snap during a jumps race at Morphettville is an act of treason to our cosy little arrangement between the Sport of Kings and the corridors of power to warrant the attention of five burly security guards to restrain anyone daring to click that treacherous shutter if a horse should fall.

To be clear, I am informed by the burliest of the posse of security personnel that this unwritten rule I have apparently breached only applies during a jumps race and certainly not during a flats race and when I suggest that the police by consulted to examine the veracity of this I am also astoundingly informed by the man (I will go out on a limb here and suggest unreliably) that the SAJC are - to use his words - “above the law”.  Perhaps he has some inside tip to which I’m not privy? (Note to self: check regs recently gazetted just to make doubly sure…)

Long story short, I am escorted off the premises and even prevented from taking a photo of the ‘conditions of entry’ at the gate declaring a ban only on broadcast quality video for commercial broadcast purposes - a far cry from a hand held stills camera that fits neatly in a handbag - by an ever growing security team stepping in to curb this potential PR disaster.

Shutting down access to images to save this struggling part of the industry is not a new tactic. It’s been trialled in Victoria and previously picked up by the pesky journos of The Australian although I would suggest it’s not a terribly effective or even legal solution.

When jumps race carnage is damaging the overall brand of racing to the extent damage control is de rigueur there is a far more effective solution.

Simply stop the largely unprofitable jumps races themselves then you won’t need to shield the public from gruesome images of an event the typically measured and cautious animal welfare group RSPCA has dubbed a ‘killing fields’.

Most commented


Show oldest | newest first

    • Brian says:

      07:12am | 25/07/11

      Australians being told how they should live…......WOW that is something new.

    • Justin says:

      09:14am | 25/07/11

      By that logic we should bring back slavery, child labour, scrap regulations dictating safe workplaces and scrab all animal welfare legislation. Why should any Australian be told how they should treat their children, the disadvantaged or their animals?

    • Katie says:

      04:30pm | 25/07/11

      If you are for cruelty, and torture, you should absolutely be told how to live.

    • Sanity says:

      06:58pm | 25/07/11

      I agree with Brian, how dare the government try to protect those that cannot protect themselves… Animals and children should not have rights, people should be able to do to each other and animals what ever they please.

      Brian… please get a clue.

    • atthepub says:

      07:34am | 25/07/11

      Have a look in nature to see if horses in the wild naturally like to jump. No, they don’t.

      Now wonder if horses who don’t naturally like to jump would want to jump with a person on their back. No, they don’t.

      The average horse weighing around 600 kilos doesn’t naturally want to hurl that weight over some jump, knowing that if it were to go awol they’re likely to break their leg and be put down.

      It’s a no brainer and stupid cruel sport.

    • Tim says:

      09:30am | 25/07/11

      What? Horses love to jump and do it naturally all the time. What are you on about?

    • atthepub says:

      11:58am | 25/07/11

      I shared a hundred acres with wild horses and not once did I see one jump. Each and every time they will go around rather than over. Think about it, why would you lift 600 odd kilos if there are alternatives? What happens when a horse breaks their leg .. is pretty much akin to death. Why would they voluntarily risk that? No brainer.

    • Tim says:

      12:24pm | 25/07/11

      Yes It’s a no brainer all right.
      Do you think horses actually know the consequences of breaking their legs before it’s happened to them?
      Ask anyone who is around horses a lot and they will tell you that some horses just love to jump.

      The argument that horses don’t jump in nature is simply false.

    • TChong says:

      12:42pm | 25/07/11

      when much young and much skinnier ( would-be apprentice jockey, regional NSW) , I spent too much time with the nags, racers and stock, and , as sad as it is to say, very, very few nags ever “loved"to jump.
      ATP is correct, most horses, like most people, will walk around an obstacle , rather than jump it.
      Another truth is horses aint too smart ( Mr Ed excepted), so if one is trained to jump, it will when the enviroment / situation for it to jump are in place, eg running/ round the track,keeeping up with the herd.
      Dressage and Show jumpers are usaully the product of many hundreds/ thousands of hours of practice.

    • Sock Rolid says:

      07:35am | 25/07/11

      HD Video Camera Sunglasses
      All an investigative journalist on a budget needs. They’re a bit bulky around the arms (aren’t we all, dear!) so they should probably be disguised with a hat.

    • Tammy Franks says:

      09:45pm | 25/07/11

      Brilliant! If only they came in pink.

    • Tim says:

      09:32am | 25/07/11

      Greens member of parliament has a whinge that she isn’t allowed to do whatever she wants on private property.
      Stop the Presses.

    • Elphaba says:

      10:15am | 25/07/11

      I don’t take anything the Greens say seriously.

      And the races are awesome.  You just want to take the fun out of everything because you and your gaggle of nitwits are terminally boring.


    • LauraBoBaura says:

      01:11pm | 25/07/11

      Whilst I agree that anything the Green’s say is laughable. Jumps racing is just plain wrong, the amount of horses that die just so we can win a few bucks watching them jump over a hedge makes me sad…

    • libertarian vegetarian says:

      06:48pm | 25/07/11

      I don’t take the Greens seriously either.
      You have to be a seriously sick **** to enjoy watching this though.
      Banning it doesn’t offend my libertarian sensibilities.  The horse isn’t given a choice, therefore free will is not being exercised by all participants. 
      How about we just have all the jockeys running around the track jumping?
      Even better, on the GC here they wanted to have bikini girls doing foot races around the track. Surely any civilized person would rather watch someone running who had the ability to choose?  Most of the spectators are so inebriated they don’t even know who wins anyway.  Bikini girls jumps races are the way to go.

    • Bill King says:

      10:29pm | 25/07/11

      Elphaba, I photograph jumps races with the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses and have also been shut down by course security. Watching horses take horrific falls is the exact opposite of fun. I haven’t seen one die yet but I’m sure it is far worse than seeing falls. If you have seen falls and/or deaths and think it is fun you need your head read. If you haven’t, you might find future events make you change your mind

    • Snapdragon says:

      10:33am | 25/07/11

      @atthepub, you obviously have not spent much time around horses. Many of them love to jump & one of mine spends considerable time bombing around his paddock leaping everything he can.

      BTW, the average horse actually weighs around 500 kilos & with a brain the size of a golf ball, is not capable of worrying about breaking a leg & being euthanized.

    • Shenanigans says:

      11:04am | 25/07/11

      @snapdragon, horses are actually fairly intelligent,( and their brain is larger in mass then ours), they are however very one tract minded, whilst running/jumping they aren’t capable of acting on that ingrained survival/risk instinct, unless the come up to a cliff or something. they are, however, capable of realising that injury is a bad thing hence why they don’t jump off that cliff or run headlong into trees.

      The Greens are just a bunch of PC idiots, whats next banning the full contact sports or making them all dress up in bubble wrap and extreme padding because in a contact sport you can get really badly hurt and we can’t have that in Australia now can we

    • Jane says:

      11:46am | 25/07/11

      One of my friends breeds horses and describes them as impossible creatures, 600kg suspended on four legs supported by ankles the same size as a human wrist.

      Basic logic says if any part is likely to break it will be the legs due to the amount of horse they are under just to stand let alone move. However horses like to run and jump so they like to push their bodies to the extreme of their design….a bit like humans really.

    • Snapdragon says:

      12:08pm | 25/07/11

      Agree Shenanigans, horses are quite intelligent.

      However they do have a brain roughly the size of a golf ball & while they possess excellent memory, they are not capable of reasoning or rational decision making. But then again, not all humans are either!

      It is not unknown for a horse to break a leg in the paddock - look at Wendy Schaeffer’s Sunburst. He won an Olympic gold medal in eventing at Atlanta yet broke a leg in a paddock accident.

    • Katie says:

      04:33pm | 25/07/11

      Some humans less than others (not directed at you). :D

    • Alvin Purple says:

      12:55pm | 25/07/11

      Only old nags go to the races.
      Young fillies go elsewhere.

    • Ban the Greens says:

      01:56pm | 25/07/11

      @Alvin:  Black Caviar is not exactly old

    • Mark G says:

      02:33pm | 25/07/11

      Everybody arguing that horses are this and horses are that have not identified that most domesticated horses (like the ones used in jumping) are far removed from wild horses. The only ones that have some resemblance are Brumbies but these were originally domesticated horses. The horses that we are talking about are domesticated animals that have been bred to race and yes, jump.

      Previous fact aside. The arguments about horses not naturally jumping obstacles by saying that in the wild it would be more naturally to go around misses the dynamic of survival. A horse in a full gallop trying to evade a predator chasing them would not stop and go around. A horse’s survival trait is to clear as much ground as quickly as possible to escape. Same as mast large land animals. This includes being able to negotiate obstacles. Normally around but also over. Add this natural trait to centuries of human controlled breeding and you have the horse breeds you see today. A horse not wanting to jump is a lazy trait that has the purpose of conserving energy for the right moment but that doesn’t mean that it can not or will not jump.

      Some people need to read their evolution books a little closer.

    • libertarian vegetarian says:

      06:35pm | 25/07/11

      So basically you’re saying that this is just an equine version of The Running Man?  I reckon that about sums it up too.
      It could as easily say “A human in a full run trying to evade a predator chasing them would not stop and go around.”  Righto. You’d do all sorts of things to escape a predator, unlikely that most of them would be considered “fun” though

    • Lisa H. says:

      06:53pm | 25/07/11

      I don’t agree with your comment at all, Mark G.
      Horses have eyes on each side of the head, which gives them excellent peripheral vision for predators, but makes them hopeless for forward vision and judging distances.
      I had a very bad accident on a horse as a 30kg child, when the horse took off at a gallop down a hill, weaved in and out of trees at full stretch - and then came to a very sudden halt at a fairly low wire fence post.
      This was a pretty tall horse, too.
      If horses ‘love to jump’, why didn’t this horse just keep going?
      And why do we bother to fence horses on farms at all?
      Not once, to my knowledge, did my parents stock horses ever jump a fence to get out. They would walk through a gate pretty quick smart though, to get to the nice grass.

    • Kerri Bryant says:

      02:34pm | 25/07/11

      SO therefore atthepub they are also incapable to understand other human emotions - so how can they “love” jumping.  Here are some more stats regarding this disgusting sport.  Jumps racing is currently killing 1 horse in every 48 that start a jumps race - or 1 every 6 jumps races. (17 races, 145 starters, 3 deaths)  Let’s have a look at flats races 816 races, 8685 starters, 2 deaths or 1 in every 4343 starters.  Now lets just apply the jumps race death rate to flats races and suddenly things don’t look so rosy.  IF flats horses died at the rate of jumps horses, there would have not been 2 deaths on the flat, there would have been 183 - OR at LEAST 1 EVERY race meeting held in this state so far this year.  How many people do you think would find it acceptable if racing killed 1 or 2 horses every time there was a meeting?  How many would don the frocks then knowing that an afternoon at the Adelaide cup would see the green screen bought out and 2 horses killed?  Jumps horses are in fact 90 times more likely to die than a horse on the flat. So why then is it acceptable to kill them at this rate over jumps? Jumps racing is not run in any other state bar SA and Victoria - it is even a criminal offence in NSW.  So WHY are we still allowing this to occur?  No wonder we are known as the backward state.

    • Punter's Pal says:

      03:24pm | 25/07/11

      Sensationalist tripe Tammy! At least you went to the races unlike those killjoys that want to ban rodeos. Oh that’s right she was a Democrat candidate and you worked for one (Stott Despoja) and were once a member of the Labor Party and now you are a Greens MLC in SA.

    • Kerri Bryant says:

      03:34pm | 25/07/11

      You might find it acceptable to kill and injury horses for entertainment Punters Pal, but the majority if us dont.
      AND why are the TRSA so against pictures being taken if this is acceptable?

    • libertarian vegetarian says:

      06:40pm | 25/07/11

      Probably the same reason the rodeo people won’t let you take photos/film there.
      You want to punt, feel free to pour your last dollar down a poker machine or take your chances at the blackjack table. Bet on a footy match. Watch the motor racing.  There are hundreds of things you can bet on, why not stick with things where all the participants have a choice to be there or not?

    • Ross says:

      04:34pm | 25/07/11

      It’s barbaric and only for the rich and careless rubbish who follow it .It cant be outlawed too soon . I don’t even like cock fighting let alone putting old race horses through that sort of stress for the sake of the so called kings who follow it.

    • Pan Elysium says:

      06:02pm | 25/07/11

      If horses really “loved to jump” so much - its hard to imagine how we manage to keep them penned in paddocks! After all equestrian jumps are huge - much larger than your average fence…Ahh! that’s the point - they will only jump when trained - so its NOT a natural behaviour at all.

    • b smith says:

      06:47pm | 25/07/11

      What a shame the writer couldnt appreciate that in the hurdle the horse that is widely regarded the best jumper in the country winning with a record weight in record time.  And a product of SA as well.  They all stayed on their feet and they all went home fine.  In fact in all the SA jumps races in June and July there has been only one fall and that horse was fine.  Its not the horror story the activists carry on with.

      Oh and horses do jump out of their paddocks its just that owners dont ring up the news and expect it to be broadcast as a lead story - they just put em back where they should be.

    • Ken Wood says:

      06:58pm | 25/07/11

      It’s an argument between rich, heartless racehorse owners and people who are evolved.

    • Tammy Franks says:

      09:38pm | 25/07/11

      One word does not make a sentence T.J. Broadcast quality video cameras not allowed but regular stills cameras are, as I noted in the piece. Check the web site, they even encourage people to post their happy snaps.

    • hustles84 says:

      07:25pm | 25/07/11

      to all of u that say horses love to jump and do it naturally, wake up u naive people,have u actually payed attention to horses legs? they are huge giants,weighing around 500kgs and then here are these petite legs,compared to their bodies they are like matchsticks, then of corse lets also cover a horse plumeting over a jump and snapping their necks, natural though right? or having a heart attack from being pushed beyond their limit BEYOND means definatly not natural, BYE BYE JUMPS its the only solution

    • Anabelle says:

      09:21pm | 25/07/11

      Well this could go on forever, so many people with so many good points and everyone so stubborn and determined.
      Why don’t we all stop getting worked up, start making sense (as well as spelling/punctuating correctly) then really get down to the crux of this.
      I can’t write here what my personal opinion is or I will then be unable to be impartial and what I say will have no meaning. I’m going to be Switzerland; neutral.
      So let me dumb this down for you…
      Pain is bad. Fun is good.
      Falling over a hurlde sustaining injury is painful. Riding a fast horsey over jumps is fun.
      Being kept in small stalls all day and trained hard while being fed ‘rocket fuel’ to force your body to go faster is bad. Getting paid to ride fast horsey’s is good.
      When we really think about it it becomes quite clear that human beings do this ‘because they can’. It is not a necessity of life, though it may provide entertainment and cash flow (which sure, people deserve. I like to have fun and make money), but at what price? The lives of innocent horses who cannot speak for themselves or fight back? I wouldn’t have that on my shoulders. You may aswell go and pay someone to go and kill a litter of kittens.
      Flat racing, though still done for money is at a much lower price (amount of lives lost).
      It all comes down to whether or not the people who direct these jumps races have a conscience or not. And whether or not the people who disagree, care enough to get up off their computers, stop posting about it and actively do something about it; or if they are simply disagreeing because they want to seem like good people or if they ‘just like pretty horses’
      I wonder after reading this how many of you are going to go and sign a petition or even start a petition perhaps. Hell, go and rally at a jumps race, break the necks of the jockeys and coordinators, that’s a punishment fitting the crime isn’t it?
      I know I may have lost many of you, but don’t you see; all I’m trying to do is get you to THINK. Look at the bigger picture, the worldly scheme. Is it really that big a deal? When there’s so many thousands of horses in the world, what’s a few dead ones?
      Is it really that small a deal when there’s so many hundreds that are already mistreated without the addition of jumps racing?

    • Kerri Bryant says:

      10:51am | 26/07/11

      Bottom line is -

      1 in 48 starters are dying in jumps racing. 

      1 in 6 jumps races kills a horse

      IF flats forses died at this rate - 180 would have been killed in the first 6 months of this year - 180.  That is NOT acceptable.

      Would the general public support this?


    • Get Real says:

      01:35pm | 26/07/11

      Jumps racing = Bloodsport.

    • Sharon says:

      07:45pm | 27/07/11

      If the racing industry really believes there is nothing cruel about their gambling driven animal sport they should welcome patrons taking happy snaps of the joy and excitement of it all. Oh, silly, silly me .... of course it is only the joy and excitement of the fillies and colts of the ignorant human variety they are really interested in promoting! And how could they possibly expect to attract more of them, and their cash, to the frock-up, drink-up, hook-up, throw-up extravaganza, if the inconvenient cruel truth is out there?

      “The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creatures that cannot.”  ~Mark Twain, What Is Man, 1906

    • RNW says:

      10:23am | 09/08/11

      Conditions of Entry Tammy: “A person may only take images of activities at the racecourse for personal use and must not make available any images for commercial exploitation, sale or distribution by any person unless accredited by Thoroughbred Racing SA. Where the Club or the Stewards reasonably suspect that images are being taken for non-personal use, the person taking the images will be liable to immediate removal from the racecourse at the direction of the Club or Stewards.”  You were not accredited by TRSA. You say in your article you intended on taking “a potentially not-quite-so-happy-snap during a jumps race at Morphettville.” By your own words you were sitting in the stands by yourself so you could only have been waiting to see if a horse would fall so you could take a photo. A camera can only be used on racecourses to take photos for personal use. No normal person would take a photo of a horse falling for their “happy snaps” album; that’s just sick. And, do some research on your tote turnover figures; one phone call and you’ll be informed they more than hold their own compared to flat races. Further, a horse simply cannot be forced to jump (successfully or safely) if it refuses to do so. Plainly and simply impossible. A reluctant jumper may jump the obstacle in an ungainly manner but would not jump it in such a manner as to (a) get it’s jumps racing ticket (and to do so must trial to the satisfaction of the Stewards among others) (b) be competative enough for the owners and trainers to pay for it’s continued training (which is not cheap) and (c) no one would deliberately risk a jockey’s life on an unsafe horse or those of other horses and riders in a race. Anyone with experience in the horse industry knows that.

    • bitcoin says:

      10:35am | 21/09/11

      hkfjs6j ffafc8w cgmxv36 bux3upf o16w3mg.


Facebook Recommendations

Read all about it

Punch live

Up to the minute Twitter chatter

Recent posts

The latest and greatest

The Punch is moving house

The Punch is moving house


Will Pope Francis have the vision to tackle this?

Will Pope Francis have the vision to tackle this?


Advocating risk management is not “victim blaming”

Advocating risk management is not “victim blaming”


Nosebleed Section

choice ringside rantings


Tim says:


From: A guide to summer festivals especially if you wouldn’t go

Kel says:


Gentle jabs to the ribs

Superman needs saving

Superman needs saving




Read all about it

Sign up to the free News.com.au newsletter