A $1 million prize money cut headlines the changes to Victoria’s 2025 jumps race season following a major review of the sport.
In announcing 36 races for hurdlers and 21 for steeplechase horses across 14 meetings, Racing Victoria confirmed the season will start later and finish earlier.
The season will open on March 28 at Warrnambool before its close with the Grand National Steeplechase meeting at Ballarat on August 17. That was one of the key recommendations out of a Jumps Review Group’s (JRG) report into the future of the sport.
The JRG was established following the deaths of three horses during the Grand National meeting at Ballarat in August.
When an inquiry into the fatalities was announced in September, RV chair Tim Eddy declared “no outcome was off the table”.
That included the possibility that jumps racing be banned in the last Australian jurisdiction to hold hurdle and steeplechase races.
While the JRG decided jumps racing should continue when its findings were released in December, it provided 11 recommendations to combat welfare and safety issues.
RV says at the forefront of its decision-making was the sport’s “long-term sustainability”.
“While there has been a decrease in the overall prize money allocated, we have prioritised maintaining minimum prize money levels to support participants at the grassroots level,” RV’s head of racing Paul Bloodworth said.
“We are committed to ensuring jumps racing continues to evolve with safety, integrity and sustainability our key focus areas and I would like to extend my thanks to the AJRA and the participating race clubs, for their assistance throughout this process.”
As part of the reduction in prize money, $50,000 has been shaved from the Grand Annual Steeplechase, the centrepiece race of Warrnambool’s three-day May carnival.
RV’s contribution to the Grand National will be $350,000 but a sponsorship injection from sponsorship Ecycle Solutions will keep the race’s purse at $400,000.
Ecycle Solutions has also committed $50,000 in prize money towards the Grand National Steeplechase for the next three years.
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Details of the sponsorship deal came ahead of the Warrnambool Racing Club (WRC) and Tabcorp announcing a renewal of a long-standing partnership.
The agreement will ensure that the TAB maintains exclusive naming rights to the May carnival, and it will now include an alliance with the club’s Jericho Cup meeting in December.
“We are thrilled to be entering into a new five-year agreement with TAB. We feel it continues to be the perfect fit,” WRC chief executive Luke Cann said.
“Both the club and TAB operate with similar values in terms of innovation and progression within the racing industry.
“This is a significant partnership and will provide enormous benefit to both parties. There are some unique opportunities in the agreement that we can’t wait to implement.”
Warwick Barr
The new partnership will run through until the end of the 2028-29 racing season.
The Straight understands Tabcorp fended off a competitive offer from its wagering rival Sportsbet to maintain its partnership with the WRC.
In 2025, the Grand Annual will be worth $350,000 - down from $400,000 in 2024.
But grassroots jumps racing has survived prize money cuts with RV continuing to allocate a $35,000 minimum purse.
As recommended in the JRG report, no races have been scheduled at Sale and jumps racing will conclude at Pakenham following the feature MJ Bourke Hurdle and JEH Spencer Steeplechase meeting on April 13.
Tim Rowe
Hamilton will now stage the Mosstrooper Day, a date previously occupied by Pakenham.
The Mosstrooper Steeplechase and Brendan Drechsler Hurdle will now headline a jumps meeting at Hamilton on July 20.
Six schooling days have been introduced throughout the year at venues across the state to help educate jumps horses and their riders.
RV said further safety and operational enhancements adopted included strengthened jumps track compliance processes, increased competitiveness of trials to better educate horses and participants and the introduction of a former jumps jockey coach to provide coaching and support.
