The funeral arrangements may have been well underway but it appears that the reports of the demise of jump racing in Victoria may well have been exaggerated.

Rather like Mark Twain, who reportedly was able to read his too-eagerly printed obituary in the New York Journal, jump racing in the Australian state had been preparing for its own expiration after 150 years. Racing Victoria Ltd brought the issue to a head in May when it temporarily suspended jump racing after three horses died at the Warrnambool carnival.

Then a decision to implement a total ban was taken in November by Racing Victoria, which was based on a view that the fatality rate in the sport was deemed unacceptable. The ban followed the adoption of safety recommendations the previous year that had failed to reduce the number of fatalities. In 2009 there were eight horse fatalities during the jumps season, with 12 killed in the previous season.

However, there has been something of an air of compromise in recent weeks and on Tuesday Racing Victoria set a number of conditions that, if the Australian Jumps Racing Association adheres to, would allow the sport to continue in Victoria after the 2010 season closes in May. Racing Victoria will then agree to another three-year extension if the conditions are met in both 2010 and 2011. Racing Victoria’s decision was greeted with dismay by animal rights groups, who had long lobbied for a permanent ban, but was accepted by the Victorian government.

Eric Musgrove is the leading jumps trainer and he welcomed the proposals as the only way forward for jump racing and thus to ensure the future of the very horses whose welfare had been the catalyst for the original cessation of jumping in the first place. “They have made alterations to the fences and the brush will be changed so it is going back to the days when it was safer,” Musgrove said.

Racing Victoria laid down a number of stringent criteria that they expect to be met by the Australian Jumps Racing Association. These include reducing the fatality rate by 50% as well as the rate of fallers and increasing the numbers of horses taking part in races.

For its part, the Australian Jumps Racing Association is working on a number of modifications to the both infrastructure and practise in an effort to meet these targets. The new measures will include making structural modifications to hurdles and padding, a more rigorous supervision of riders, improvements to schooling and trialling facilities and a deferred start to the racing season to provide horses and jockeys with the chance to get used to the changes.

Michael Duffy, Racing Victoria’s chairman, said that as the jumping community has promised to work within the new framework of stipulations and have them implemented this year, his organisation will back the sport for another season. However, he left no room for doubt when he said: “If the new requirements are not met in 2010, jumps racing will cease at the end of that season and a transition fund will be established to assist jockeys and trainers. If the jumps racing community meets the new conditions in both the 2010 and 2011 seasons, then RVL will commit to a further three year programme.”

However, Musgrove believes that the sport will continue beyond 2011 as it has been proven that there is enough support to make it work. “You just have to look at the enormous support behind jumps racing since the decision was made to stop the sport,” he said. “It raised Aus$60million last year for the industry and associates and it is a good winter spectacle.”

There were only two horse fatalities in the last half of the season and both Duffy and Musgrove are hoping that there can be a future for jump racing in Victoria. “There have been many attempts to improve jumps racing in the past, but we now have a specific set of agreed conditions with the jumps racing community to determine the sport’s future,” Duffy said.

Hopefully all will jump at this final chance.

Paul Wheeler