Right: The annual Grand National at Aintree, England.Further implications
It is difficult not to draw the conclusion that jumps racing will ultimately be banned in Victoria. The racing industry as a whole has to compete with a wide range of other sporting and gambling opportunities available to Victorians. It therefore does not seem likely that it will continue to support a section of the industry which brings in only a relatively small percentage of its revenues and which attracts a large and currently growing amount of negative publicity.There are inherent difficulties in jumps racing in Australia, notably relatively hard tracks and fast horses which have previously raced on the flat. The jumps racing fraternity have made serious efforts to reduce the inherent risks. Paradoxically one of those measures - the new lower, brush-topped hurdles - may actually have increased the dangers by making horses less wary of the jumps.
Obviously further reforms are going to be put in place; however, it seems likely that it will only take a couple more debacles of the type which occurred at the Grand National at Flemington for either a temporary ban or a permanent halt to be called to jumps racing in Victoria.
It would appear that the question of jumps racing being banned in Victoria actually centres around when and how rather than if.