Review of security

RACING Victoria chief strategy officer Paul Bittar said Racing Victoria would review security measures at jumps race meeting, following an incident between a jockey and an anti-jumps protestor at Cranbourne Racecourse last week.
Bittar said if protestors risked the safety of horses or jockeys at jumps events they would be removed from the racecourse.
“We agree that everyone has the right to protest but not to the detriment of the horses and participants,” Bittar said.
“We are charged with providing a safe work environment. Where people come together and seek to obstruct or pose any potential workplace risk or danger, we will be providing extra security and seeking for these people to be removed.”
“They will be free to continue their protest outside the racecourse.”
Bittar said the risk posed by protestors was in part due to the intimidation to jockeys as well as the overt risk where protestors had positioned themselves near obstacles within the racecourse.
“That sort of action poses a direct risk to the horse, the rider and the protestor,” he said.
“There are different degrees of protesting, where there are protests outside the racecourse we are not concerned.”
Bittar said Racing Victoria would also consider whether it would restrict jumps trial events to licensed and accredited people only.
“We are doing some work internally on that at the moment as a result of what happened at Cranbourne last week.”
While its intention is to see the 2010 jumps racing season through, Bittar said Racing Victoria reserved its right to end the season early in severe circumstance.
“Ultimately if there was a situation where we felt the risk to riders was too great for us to continue, we would end the season early.”