New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing’s (NZTR) release of their consultation document on the future of jumps racing on Monday may have come as a surprise to many, but not leading jumps jockey Shaun Fannin.
The Central Districts horseman has been a key figure in New Zealand jumps racing for more than a decade and has won multiple New Zealand Jumps Jockeys’ Premierships, but in the last couple of seasons he has been transitioning to a career a trainer and has been reducing his commitments in the saddle.
Fannin is now committed to just riding his own horses, as well as Champion Jumper West Coast, who he guided to victory in the Koral Steeplechase (4250m) at Riccarton last Saturday, just two days prior to NZTR releasing their consultation document on the future of jumps racing.
It was a welcome announcement by Fannin, who said the jumps racing fraternity has been seeking action from the sport’s governing body for the last few years.
“It (jumps racing) has been under a bit of pressure for a few years now and we have been trying to make suggestions to help improve it for a fair while,” Fannin said.
“We have been onto them (NZTR) for a while now and we have been waiting for something to happen, and luckily something has happened eventually.”
The consultation period will run through to September 6, with NZTR proposing two options – the continuation of the sport with a dedicated strategy and additional investment, or a managed wind-down and eventual closure of jumps racing.
Jumps racing has played a pivotal role in Fannin’s career and he believes it is a vital part of the sport in New Zealand, particularly for career development. Fannin and fellow top jumps jockey Shaun Phelan are both prime examples of this, with both horsemen now forging successful careers in the training ranks.
“It (jumps racing) has been everything to my career, starting off there and then leading towards where I am today (training),” he said.
“There is a lot of work that goes into jumpers, probably more so than the flat horses. A lot of people right from the grassroots level start with the jumpers, it is a real community, and without jumpers you miss a lot of your ground staff and people on the way through that can’t be jockeys, they have a huge involvement in the jumpers.”
Fannin said the biggest issue jumps racing is facing at the moment is the shortage of jumps jockeys.
“I think there is no lack of jumping horses around, the problem is most definitely with the riders,” he said.
“There is a big opportunity with riders overseas if NZTR wanted to come together as an entity and advertise for riders to come over for a six-month period.
“Joshua Parker (English jumps jockey) is over here at the moment. They can’t get rides overseas and he has ridden numerous winners since he has been over here, and he is trying to spread the word back there.
“I think visas are a bit of an issue, but NZTR are a big enough entity to have some pull to be able to get work visas over here for them. I am sure that will solve most of the problems.
“There are certainly a lot of jumpers around and at the moment they are having to scratch because there aren’t enough riders around.”
Fannin said jumps racing is also a major player in extending the racing careers of many thoroughbreds and it helps reduce the bottleneck in rehoming retired racehorses.
“They struggle to rehome a lot of horses at the moment, and this gives horses a second career after flat racing,” Fannin said. “If they got rid of jumps racing there are more horses that they have to think about rehoming and I struggle to see where they are going to place those horses.”
Fannin is urging racing participants to have their say over the consultation period and submit their feed to NZTR, with the process outlined in this document: Jumps Consultation 1 Aug FINAL 2.pdf (nztr.co.nz)
“It (jumps racing) is a great spectacle for everyone to be involved with,” he said.
The jumps racing fraternity are contemplating their future during one of their biggest weeks on the racing calendar, the Grand National Festival of Racing at Riccarton, and Fannin is hoping he can ride West Coast (NZ) (Mettre En Jeu) to his third successive win in the Racecourse Hotel & Motor Lodge 149th Grand National (5600m) on Saturday.
“He is a wonderful horse. He gave me a wonderful ride (last Saturday) and was strong to the line. It gives me plenty of confidence heading into the National this weekend,” Fannin said.
Prior to his riding engagement at Riccarton this weekend, Fannin will be wearing his training hat on Thursday at Cambridge where he and his partner Hazel Schofer will line-up Fourty Eight (NZ) (Ekraar) in the $100,000 TAB 2000.
The six-year-old son of Ekraar has recorded three wins on the synthetic and Fannin is hopeful of snaring the lion’s share of the prizemoney on offer this week.
“He is three from three on the synthetic, so he deserves a shot at that race,” Fannin said. “It ($100,000 synthetic innovation race) is a wonderful incentive, and it is great to see.”
