Racing Victoria is backing the growth of jumps racing by staging two feature Sundays in 2018, following the success of the inaugural all-jumps Grand National Steeplechase card at Ballarat in August 2017.
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Warrnambool and Bendigo will both hold super jumps days next July. The addition of a fifth jumps race and two high-weight races to Warrnambool's Kevin Lafferty Hurdle meeting and Bendigo's Mosstrooper Steeplechase meeting means that those two programs will now be exclusively contested by jumps riders. The reformatted seven-race programs will be held on Sundays 8 and 22 July respectively. They will comprise three hurdles and two steeplechases, with existing $100,000 feature races taking top place on the bill.
The 2018 jumps racing season will begin at Warrnambool on Thursday, 15 March and run until Sunday, 23 September, finishing up at Coleraine in the Western Districts. A combined total of $3.745 million in prizemoney will be offered across 64 jumps races: 43 hurdles and 21 steeplechases.
Warrnambool is again the most active club with 21 races programmed. An additional $150,000 in prizemoney is to be offered across jumps races at the 2018 Warrnambool May Racing Carnival, ensuring that the traditional jumps events continue to grow in prestige. There will be an increase of $50,000 to the Grand Annual Steeplechase (5500m) taking it to $350,000, making it the equal highest prize in jumps racing alongside the Grand National Steeplechase. There will be an uplift of $25,000 for both the Brierly Steeplechase (3450m) and Galleywood Hurdle (3200m), making the feature races on days one and two of the Warrnambool carnival respectively worth $150,000 each. There will also now be a $50,000 Champion Novice Steeplechase (3200m) on day two of the Carnival, meaning that a minimum of two jumps races will now be run on each of the three days.
Western districts course Terang will once again host jumps races, with two hurdle events scheduled on 23 March, nearly 10 years after the club last hosted a jumps race in 2008; Pakenham's Sunday April 15 meeting will become a key lead-up to the Warrnambool carnival with four jumps races and prizemoney for the MJ Bourke Hurdle (3200m) and JEH Spencer Memorial Steeplechase (3200m) both elevated by 25per cent to $50,000. There will also be stake money hikes for the final two steeplechases of the season, with the Casterton Steeplechase (3800m, 9 September) and the Great Western Steeplechase (3600m, 23 September) at Coleraine both increased by 33 per cent to $40,000. RV will also continue to offer a $10,000 bonus to the connections of horses enjoying a maiden jumps victory. Since its inception in 2012, a total of $1.67 million has been awarded in first-win bonuses.
Australian Jumping Racing Association chairman Sandy McGregor said he welcomed the changes.
"This program is the best we have had in many years and we thank Racing Victoria for its efforts," he said.
