By ROY ASPINALL
The Melbourne Racing Club will stage Melbourne’s only Saturday jumps fixture for the season at Ladbrokes Park, Sandown, on Saturday 28 May.
The meeting will feature the $126,500 Australian Hurdle (3400 metres) and the $126,500 Australian Steeplechase (3400 metres). Both events are listed as Premier Jumping Events for Australia.
This year marks the 135th running of the premier jumping events, two of the oldest events on the Victorian racing calendar.
They are the major lead-up events to the $200,000 Grand National Hurdle (3900 metres) at Ladbrokes Park, Sandown on Sunday 7 August and the $350,000 Grand National Steeplechase (4500 metres) on Sunday 21 August at Ballarat.
The $125,000 Crisp Steeplechase (3900 metres) will also be run on Sunday 7 August and is a lead-up to the Grand National Steeplechase a fortnight later.
Over the two meetings on 28 May and 7 August there will be $578,000 in prizemoney on offer for Australasia’s best jumpers.
The Australian Hurdle, Australian Steeplechase, Grand National Hurdle and Crisp Steeplechase are all part of the $1.9 million J. J. Houlahan Jumps Championship.
The Championship, named after Australia’s greatest modern day jumps trainer, covers 16 premier jumps races in two states (Victoria and South Australia) between March and August.
The J. J. Houlahan Jumps Championship, instigated in 2006, celebrates the champion jumps horse, jockey and trainer who each accumulate the most points from the selected 16 jumps races.
Points are awarded to the horses and their respective trainers and jockeys who finish in the top five of each of those Championship events.
The series concludes with the Grand National Steeplechase meeting at Ballarat on 21 August.
