’CHASING PERILS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 852, 28 August 1933, Page 10

’CHASING PERILS.

Melbourne Leaders Discuss Remedies. THE PACE THAT KILLS. (By VIGILANT.) There has been much discussion on the subject of steeplechasing risks in Melbourne since the fatal accident to the jockey, James Stubbs, at Caulfield on August 12. Higher jumps and longer courses are the remedy suggested by Mr L. K. S. Mackinnon, chairman of the Victoria Racing Club. Mr R. M. Cuthbertson, a leading hunting man, while agreeing that higher jumps would prevent the horses going so fast, thought that they would bring more horses down. He suggested putting up more brush on the take-off side of jumps, enabling horses to sight them better. On the other hand, Mr Claude Grice, former champion amateur rider, who won the V.R.C. Gi*and National Steeplechase on his own horse Fleetstone, and A. Fullarton, a leading Victorian cross-country rider, both favoured the log take-off with a reduction of the brush in front of the fences. Mr A. V. Hiskens, secretary of both the Victoria Amateur Turf Club (Caulfield) and the Moonee Valley Racing Club, favoured having the jumps closer together and remarked that “ the safest place in a jumping race is up in the air.” Mr Hiskens, who formerly followed the hounds, and the veteran trainer James Scobie, once a leading crosscountry rider, both blamed inadequate schooling of horses for most of the accidents. They also agreed that the majority of the modern jumping jockeys rode too short. Mr Gus Powell, owner of Mosstrooper, in his day did a lot of riding over fences both in the hunting field and as an amateur rider. His opinion is: “ It is entirely up to the riders. In the early days steeplechases were ridden at more or less hunting pace. Nowadays the riders would try to go just as hard if they had to jump 16ft high. Few of them use much judgment. Their idea is the first off the first home.” Leading Rider's Opinion. A. Fullarton, the prominent crosscountry rider, said the Caulfield fences were more dangerous than those at Flemington, where the jumps were higher and stiffer, and at Williamstown, because of the lack of slope and the brush take-off. The brush was too high. The horse could see little more than a foot of the fence. His experience was that a horse jumped better from a log take-off, as at Flemington and Williamstown. Two years ago he was in England, and went round the Grand National course at Aintree. He doubted whether Australian horses, going round as they did in their own country, could manage the Aintree course. They could take no liberties with the big fences there. They could not take off two or three yards before the. fences anywhere. At Reckless Pace. While the contention of Messrs Scobie and Hiskens that horses should be adequately schooled is sound, anybody who has seen many jumping races -'n Melbourne will agree that they are run at too fast a pace. James Barbour may not have been actually the pioneer jockey to use the “ Sloan ” seat over jumps in Australia, but at any rate he was the first to do it with marked success. Barbour won the V.R .C. and Caulfield Grand National Steeplechases on Daimio in 1895, and the latter event again on My Mistake in 1903. Record after record has been smashed in Melbourne this winter in events over obstacles. There has been a crop of accidents, some of w’hich have been serious and one fatal to a jockey. As has been the case before in Victoria and in England, too, for that matter,

the heavy casualty list has created an outcry. Reflection tends to emphasise that there is a lot of luck, chance or Fate—call it what you please—about good or bad years for racing casualties. The most serious injuries to jockeys at Riccarton in the last twelve months have been incurred in flat races. There were falls a plenty at the recent Grand National meeting, but no jockey was seriously injured. Those falls, however, could just as easily have resulted in quite another story. Melbourne Fatalities. Melbourne has known many fatal race accidents to cross-country horsemen. Such notabilities as Tom Cor. rigan, Mick Mooney and Paddy Regan were killed “in action.” All were very popular riders, Corrigan particularly so. Corrigan received fatal injuries while riding Waiter in the Caulfield Grand National Steeplechase on August 11, 1894. His funeral cortege was over a mile long, and among the flowers was a wreath from the boys who sold newspapers in the city streets. In more recent years, the names of the New Zealander, Hugh Cairns, Collis Boyd, Jimmy O’Reilly and P. Dinsdale, who each received fatal injuries in a jumping race, are recalled. Cairns, Boyd and O’Reilly were not killed in steeplechases, however, but in hurdle races. O’Reilly, riding a novice with the illomened name of S tumbler, came down in front of a big field at the first jump in a race at Moonee Valley. Cairns was riding a moderate in a race at the same course. ITis mount fell. Cairns slid off the horse uninjured, but the animal twisted in the air and came back to fall on the head of his rider. Relentless Fate. No new rules or regulations will prevent such a fatality as that of Cairns, but the. case of Boyd was even more illustrative of the relentlessness of Fate. He was riding a mare called Bindweed in a hurdle race on February 13, 1926, at Caulfield. Another acceptor for the race was Molyneux, owned by J. M. Cameron, of Hawke’s Bay. The jockey Cameron had engaged did not arrive, and Cameron went to scratch the horse. He was too late by Jess than a minute, and the stipendiary stewards would not permit the withdrawal. Bindweed fell, but Boyd was uninjured and lay still. Evidently thinking that all of the field had passed, Boyd started to raise himself just as Molyneux, who was tailed °ff. came along. He was struck on the head and died from his injuries a few hours later. There will always be accidents in jumping races, and, occasionally, in events on the flat, also, but that will tend to minimise them is welcome. The question of lessening the pace at which jumpers travel looks a problem for the Victorian authorities, but they could insist on jockeys riding more in the style of the riders of pre-Sloan years. T.he trouble about the modern seat is that it gives a jockey small chance to recover if his mount hits hard without falling. Accidents such as that to Cairns, referred to above are rare. The danger to a fallen rider generally comes from other horses in the field. Horses will avoid a jockey lying on the ground if they can, but they do not always have the chance to do so. The higher jumps remedy seems a doubtful idea. If it be adopted and horses are injured, there will be a cry of cruelty such as has been raised more than once in England in recent years over the Aintree country. Less distance between jumps might be effective in slowing the field up somewhat.