Trainer Robbie Laing says he will set up a satellite stable in South Australia next season if Racing Victoria Ltd (RVL) stands by its decision to ban jumps racing in Victoria.Laing has 15 jumpers on his books and said that, if necessary, he would set up a base to train them in the last remaining "jumping" state."It is not our preferred option but we have horses and owners to cater for and if they (SA) were the only ones that had enough guts in Australia to run jumps racing then we would reward t

Trainer Robbie Laing says he will set up a satellite stable in South Australia next season if Racing Victoria Ltd (RVL) stands by its decision to ban jumps racing in Victoria.

Laing has 15 jumpers on his books and said that, if necessary, he would set up a base to train them in the last remaining "jumping" state.

"It is not our preferred option but we have horses and owners to cater for and if they (SA) were the only ones that had enough guts in Australia to run jumps racing then we would reward them," Laing said.

Laing accused the RVL board of being as "weak as water" and questioned whether it was the board or the RSPCA running racing in the state.

He said jumps racing had been compromised out of existence and called for the old panel jumps to be reintroduced.

"Every compromise has made jumps racing so unsafe," Laing said.

"Smaller jumps, fewer jumps, yellow-topped tops, a steel A-frame behind the jumps and schooling over 2800 metres at a snail's pace with three runners instead seven or eight running at race speed have all definitely made it less safe."

He said all the changes had led to, in many cases, the wrong type of horse contesting jumps races.

"People go away and get a lightly-framed flat horse that has 2000-metre flat ability to cater for the low hurdles but at the end of the day it doesn't carry 69kg or 70kg all that well because of its frame," Laing said.

"They are going so damn fast he trips over the steel A-frame and because he is lightly framed he breaks."

He said the old-style jumping horses were bigger and stronger.

"He was 17 hands and with a head like a 44-gallon drum and feet like a draughthorse and those kinds of horses could really jump," Laing said

He said they would make up to a length at every jump over the former handy flat horse which would equate to 12 lengths at the end of a race.

"They carried weight better and were so big and tough that if they happened to fall they didn't break," he said.

He said panel jumps were safer as they would flatten if a horse hit them with any force.

"An eight-foot panel of four-by-two with some nice rubber over it and some swamp ti-tree attached to it makes it look nice and natural and if a horse hits it pretty hard the jump falls to the ground," he said.

"If a horse got killed it was a rarity and you would be stunned by it but now you go to the races and it is more like `I wonder which ones are going to come home'."

Laing is confident jumps racing can survive with minimal casualties but only if RVL gets the right advice from past and present jockeys as well as trainers.

"If it gets a reprieve let's do it right," Laing said.

The Australian Jumps Racing Association will meet with RVL shareholders on Wednesday night to decide on a course of action ahead of RVL's annual general meeting the following day.

Shareholders comprise the three metropolitan clubs, Country Racing Victoria, trainers, jockeys, breeders, bookmakers and unions.