By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
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MELBOURNE Racing Club claims a jumps-racing protester arrested for trespass at Sandown racecourse last Sunday week had been previously warned not to film on the premises.
Elio Celotto, a campaign manager with Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses, was arrested after filming the $100,000 Crisp Steeplechase – a race in which two horses, Regal Heir and Half Moon Rising, had fallen heavily.
After stumbling at one of the final hurdles Half Moon Rising ploughed head-first into the Sandown turf but survived.
Mr Celotto told the Weekly that of the eight starters, only two horses finished the race.
He said he would seek legal advice over what he regarded as a wrongful arrest on “arguably public land” as part of a crackdown on his protest group.
Mr Celotto said he was told by police and track officials he was trespassing as he filmed from the top of his van in a “car park which is never used” outside the course.
“I’ve been there more than 20 times before to film the track’s second-last jump.”
He vowed to return for the course’s next jumps-racing meet.
Melbourne Racing Club spokesman Jake Norton said Mr Celotto was within the club’s premises – a disused area near the track’s perimeter – and “well aware that he was out of bounds”.
“He wasn’t in the car park. He had ducked down a road and parked in an area alongside the track – you can’t get there when the premises is closed.
“The owners of the visual rights of horse racing are the only organisation to have video cameras on the course. He was well aware that he’s not allowed to film on racecourse property.”
For several years the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses has been a fixture at Victorian jumps racing events, including last Sunday week’s annual Grand National Hurdle day at Sandown. It has staged demonstrations calling for a ban on jumps races.
Jumps debate
LAST Sunday week’s arrest of protester Elio Celetto stirred debate on the Weekly’s website and Twitter page. Here are some readers’ comments:
Why arrest the protesters? All they are trying to do is save horses’ lives. The fact that eight horses started and two finished is saying something about jumps racing and why it should be banned. – E
Too bad they don’t arrest those who allow these horses to be killed like this. As usual, people shoot the messenger. – Trish
If we didn’t give our horses purpose, a job to do, the species would die out as horses are too expensive to have as a pet only. Maybe the haters need to think before they protest about racing or any horse sport. – In The Know
Eight horses started and two finished because
jockeys have been asked to pull their horses up if the horses can’t win. The jumps industry can’t win with the anti-jumps lobby. – Rob
The people protesting are so short-sighted : training a racehorse to relax and stay the distance in a jumps race can often be the first step in giving these horses a new home. Azza
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