Coming Sunday week to Seven Network, Jump Off is an exciting new reality television series where five teams compete for $100,000 in prize money. Hosted by Hamish McLachlan and produced by Showmakers Equestrian, the series features off the track race horses and promotes the lifetime care of thoroughbreds.

Australian Jumping has partnered with the producers of this landmark series to promote and engage the jumping community and the general public, with the aim of raising the overall profile of jumping within Australia. An online series, based on the TV program, will complement the episodes and follow these thoroughbreds as they transition to the jumping world after their racing careers have ended.

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This highly anticipated series, which marries the sport of horse racing and jumping, will be broadcast on Seven Network from Sunday 30 September. Please check your TV guide for times in your region.  Replays of Jump Off will also air on Racing.com (Ch 78) three times a week – Monday evening at 6:30pm, Saturday at 8:30pm and Sunday mornings at 8:30am.

Jump Off features a line-up of Australia’s best racehorse trainers and each trainer is paired with an Olympic or champion showjumping rider. Broadcast over the popular Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival, Jump Off includes some of the biggest names in racing with David Hayes of the Lindsay Park powerhouse, Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Darren Weir, multiple Group 1- winning trainer Mick Price, former jockey turned trainer Patrick Payne, and Godolphin Australia’s Head Trainer, James Cummings.

Jump Off’s showjumping riders include equestrian legend and three-time Olympian Vicki Roycroft, current Australian Showjumping Champion and WEG competitor Jamie Kermond, Olympians Peter McMahon and Russell Johnstone and former Australian Show Jumping Champion and coach, David Cameron. Between them, these formidable riders have won six Australian Show Jumping Championship titles, represented Australia at five OIympic Games and frequently campaign on the international circuit. They are the best of the best.

The series culminates in a spectacular indoor jumping competition in front of a live audience at Boneo Park Equestrian Centre in Victoria. The stakes are high, with the five teams competing for $100,000 – the richest Australian jumping class in recent history.

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Jump Off is an original concept created by Steve Dundon, Executive Producer of Showmakers Equestrian. Dundon, a TV industry veteran with over 25 years’ experience, and also a keen showjumper, saw an opportunity to raise the profile of equestrian sport in Australia. ‘There is no equestrian content on television in Australia. It’s very popular overseas and there is an opportunity to showcase the sport to a broader market. Showjumping is very easy for the public to understand – you either knock a rail or you have time faults.’

Equestrian sport is already very popular in the United States and Europe and many Australian riders head overseas to compete at the elite level. They do this because there is decent prize money. Dundon believes ‘the only way we will attract bigger sponsorship, and therefore bigger prize money, is by producing quality equestrian content.’

The Jump Off series was created to promote equine welfare and the versatility of thoroughbreds. ‘Not every horse can win a Melbourne Cup’says Dundon. ‘We wanted to focus on those horses that don’t win and their life after racing and show that many of these horses can have a second career in equestrian disciplines’.

Showmakers Equestrian have been successful in attracting key support from the racing industry with Racing Victoria and  RV’s Off the Track program signing on as Major Partners of the series. Other sponsors include Bates Saddles, Horseware, Barastoc, Coprice, Pryde’s EasiFeed, Horsepower, National Horse Transport and Horizon Show Jumps.

Australian Jumping is delighted to partner with the producers, Showmakers Equestrian, to promote this exciting series and champion the sport of jumping in Australia.

Australia, get ready to Jump Off! Sunday 30^th September at 12 noon On Seven Network.