The 7-year-old gelding Rebel Racer became the second victim of the 2024 jumps racing season in Victoria when he fell and was subsequently killed during a jumps racing trial in Warrnambool on 19 April.
The fall that led to the killing of Rebel Racer in the jumps trial has been cut from the race-replay, something that is sadly becoming common conduct in horse races in Victoria.
What’s most disturbing, however, is that his fall was not recorded in the race results. Neither was the fall of 8-year-old Pearlman that happened in an earlier trial on the same day. Instead, both these falls was recorded as “Failed to Finish”.
Whilst both Rebel Racer and Pearlman indeed did fail to finish, it is highly misleading not to record the falls that had caused them to not finish. Falling is the most common reason horses are killed in jumps racing and in last years season every one in ten jumps horses suffered a fall.
As such, if our faithful volunteer hadn’t been there to film the trials on 19 April, the two falls of which one was fatal, would not have been disclosed to the public and would not be counted into the statistics of incidents in jumps racing in Victoria.
Join us Protesting the Warrnambool Jumps Racing Carnival 2 May
Rebel Racer wasn’t Listened to
This was Rebel Racer’s first season in jumps racing. In his very first jumps trial on 7 March 2024 in Terang, he fought so hard to refuse one of the hurdles that he crashed into and broke the running rail to the side of the hurdle.
As someone commented on the video of Rebel Racer crashing through the rail; How loud does a horse need to shout before he is listened to?
This crash, however, didn’t discourage Rebel Racer’s owners from trialling him again on 3 April. He was trialled once again on 19 April, this time ending his life when he suffered a catastrophic fall over a hurdle and was killed behind the green screen.
Rebel Racer had already won more than $400,000 for his owners when they decided to risk his life entering him into the deadliest form of racing.
Fly free, Rebel Racer. We will continue to fight for an end to jumps racing in Victoria.