MIKE Symons, the deputy chairman of the Melbourne Racing Club, has emerged as the possible white knight in the battle to restore jumping racing beyond 2010 in Victoria, reports The Age.It says: In a last-ditch concession by Racing Victoria Limited, Symons, a leading businessman and horse owner, will soon begin talks with RVL chief executive Rob Hines that will be aimed at reversing the decision to terminate jumping in this state.Symons said yesterday that his first involvement in the jumps racin

MIKE Symons, the deputy chairman of the Melbourne Racing Club, has emerged as the possible white knight in the battle to restore jumping racing beyond 2010 in Victoria, reports The Age.

It says: In a last-ditch concession by Racing Victoria Limited, Symons, a leading businessman and horse owner, will soon begin talks with RVL chief executive Rob Hines that will be aimed at reversing the decision to terminate jumping in this state.

Symons said yesterday that his first involvement in the jumps racing issue was last Friday after working through data that had been produced to justify the demise of the sport.

''When I saw the data I was baffled, as the trends in the second half of the season were a vast improvement,'' he said.

''I contacted Rob Hines and said that certain key-performance indicators were positive in the last half and perhaps if we set goals for next season it could give jumps racing some future surety.

''If we sat down and said that if certain KPIs were met it could give us a future that is strong and very acceptable to both sides of the debate.''

Such KPIs would be formulated during the negotiations but are expected to involve reductions in falls and fatalities, and the development of a plan that Australian Jumping Racing Association president Rodney Rae described as world's best practice.

''The components [of the proposal] will relate to world's best practice and one would imagine that we'd be given time to head down that path and also given RVL's commitment and resources to be able to do that,'' said Rae.

''Obviously our objectives would involve reducing the fatality rate as a part of our world's-best plans. We're extremely confident that [jumping racing to continue beyond 2010) will be the case. I'm not sure they [RVL] have made their mind up on it and the chairman's comment today, to investigate or discuss ways in which jumping racing can continue beyond 2010, we'll be going down that path to try and achieve that outcome.''