The end of winter was marked with the extremely popular Irish Jumps Jockey Challenge raceday with the main focus the Australian and Irish Jockey teams taking each other on in the Hurdle and Steeplechase races.  At Gawler earlier in the week the Irish team had taken the lead but the big deciders would be the races at Morphettville.  This year the crowd was up again with all the marquees, inside grandstand areas and the Diva Bar extremely popular with little room to move. 

In the steeplechase Groenenboom made a huge leap at the first to take a clear lead from Redevelop and Red Eyed Special then King Triton followed by Swney's Banjo and Maldives.  Little changed until the straight the first time where  Groenenboom led as Red Eyed Special and Redevelop moved closer from King Triton, Maldives and Swney's Banjo.  By the 1600m Red Eyed Special joined Groenenboom in front from Redevelop as KIng Triton got closer from Maldives and Swney's Banjo.  BY the 800m Red Eyed Special was in front with King Triton making a move around the outside from Groenenboom then Redevelop and Maldives.  Over the 3rd last jump King Triton has raced well clear ahead of Groenenboom who started to come back from Redevelop.  Around the home turn King Triton was a mile in front from Groenenboom then Swney's Banjo followed by Redevelop.  Over the last and King Triton raced away to win by 20 lengths from Groenenboom with Swney's Banjo a clear third making it a clean sweep for the Australian riders then Redevelop and Red Eyed Special as Maldives stumbled on landing over the last and took a harmless fall.

Out in the public area for the hurdle by the time the race started the crowd had lined the outside fence to watch the race (after earlier taking advantage of the fully packed marquees and tables & chair areas out along the lawns) and it was a great spectacle to end the season on.  Without Reproach went to the front from Compelled then All Guns Blazing followed by Downes then Fantauzzo with Earthbound along the rail then Bold Zamour and Take Out.  In the straight the first time it was Without Reproach leading All Guns Blazing and Earthbound then Compelled ahead of Take Out and Downs then Fantauzzo and Bold Zamour in a a compact field.  LIttle changed as they headed along the back where Without Reproach led All Guns Blazing with Earthbound third then Compelled and Downes followed by Fantauzzo then Bold Zamour and Take Out.  Around the home turn Without Reproach led narrowly from All Guns Blazing as Earthbound moved out for his run from Bold Zamour around Compelled then Fantauzzo.  Over the second last Earthbound had taken the lead as Bold Zamour continued to run on from Compelled and Without Reproach then Fantauzzo and All Guns Blazing.  Over the last Earthbound was clear from Bold Zamour and Compelled who landed together from Without Reproach then Fantauzzo. Earthbound held on to win by just over a length from Compelled who edged out Bold Zamour for second with Without Reproach next from Fantauzzo.  Again the Australian's were too good easily taking out the series. 

Hopefully all the speculation about the jumps at Morphettville settles down and cooler heads prevail to note that its been over two years without a serious injury to a horse in a jumps race in South Australia and well over three years in the hurdle races which goes to show that the rules regarding safety that were brought in around that time have done their job.  The media has sensationalised the odd fall but for those of us who attend equestrian events falls are commonplace in horse sports and generally horse and rider are unhurt and go on to the next event or race soon afterwards.  This year nearly all the horses that have fallen have gone on to race numerous times and most have won or placed in races afterwards.  Last year there was only one lost rider in the last race of the year and locally in SA many more trainers now have their jumps licences and are working on finding jumps horses and going through the long program of educating them.  This process usually starts the season prior to the horses making their debuts so while some anti racing outlets claim there are only a small number currently on the track they dont take into account those who will be trialling to qualify to race next year (and from what I've noticed those who were aimed at the early part of the season such as Oakbank and have been in the spelling paddocks for a while now).

Its also been noted that Morphettville and Oakbank at Easter are the only Saturday jumps race meetings - up to the end of 2009 Saturday jumps races were also commonplace in Melbourne but when the uproar over the horrible yellow jumps came to a head and new jumps and rules were brought in to rebuild the sport jumps races moved away from the other metro tracks.  This was in part to the fact that the steeple tracks at both Moonee Valley and Flemington were removed when those tracks were redone/remodelled around that era and the fact that Sandown which has been very well suited to jumps racing with its two tracks is not commonly used as a Saturday venue.  In the last two years the Australian Hurdle and Steeple meeting at Sandown has been programmed on a Saturday while there are plans to start racing over jumps again at Caulfield which could indeed see Melbourne jumps racing in particular the many features return to some of the winter Saturday programs in the future.