Kick Up, a Voice With-In for Anti-Racing Sentiment

“Kick Up wasn’t established as a resource for propaganda,” says Vicky Leonard, Chief Executive of Kick Up who says “it’s an industry voice with-in for anti-racing sentiment.”

“We are here to provide an opportunity and a place for people to find out the truth about those ‘mistruths’ with validated statistics and research backing them.”

“We aren’t going to hide behind or shy away from areas where we need to do better, and we are here to advocate for an industry that provides employment for more than 75,000 people.”

For those rightly concerned who may say ‘horses are used for racing are victims of an industry that is rife with drug abuse,’ Kick Up says “horses racing in Australia is performance drug free.”

“And just like human athletes, some medications are permitted in training, while however horses are not allowed to race on drugs and are tested regularly under tight rules.”

Founded in October by Vicky Leonard, as Managing Director of thoroughbred marketing strategists Kick Collective, while also being Managing Director of Thoroughbred Daily News AusNZ.

In being Marketing Manager for Arrowfield Stud for 7 years to 2018, Vicky oversaw Brand Marketing being it stallion and yearling advertising, media, digital and print strategy, race sponsorship.

A native of Timaru NZ, she is a graduate of the University of Otago and Sydney Business School, then going on to the Godolphin Flying Start and New Zealand Racing Board programs.

However, with the Melbourne Cup being ‘the race that stops the nation’ it’s in the public eye that witnessed the fate of Verema from France, Admire Rakti of Japan and Britain’s Red Cadeaux.

All three died as results of their Melbourne Cup runs, three of six horses have died over the last eight editions, with English Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck in 2020 breaking his leg.

More so, leading owner and breeder Mathew Sandblom who says his lack of interest in the Melbourne Cup comes from ‘the high levels of breakdowns and the dominance of fly-in fly-out horses.’

“The Melbourne Cup has become a prestigious and rich race for European horses to compete, but they have to run 3200 metres on one of the hardest racetrack surfaces in Australia,” he said.

“In the week before this year’s Cup the curator put 40mm of irrigation on the Flemington track but it still came up as a Good 3 by the time the Cup was run, which is a Good 2 at other tracks.”

“If you want to run a rich European staying handicap in early November in Melbourne give them a track that they are used to, at least a Dead 5 or Slow 6, otherwise expect the breakdowns.

“When you exclude the overseas-trained horses, the only Australasian-bred and trained horse to be catastrophically injured in the Cup in the last 40 years was Dulcify in 1979.”

“The genesis of Kick Up came about via pure frustration amongst my team and I at Kick Collective as well as industry peers back in November 2021 on Melbourne Cup Day,” said Vicky Leonard.

“We were observing people, including well-known clothing brands and those we follow on social media, carelessly sharing false mistruths about horseracing thinking they are facts.”

“However, in scrolling veterinary journals to answer to this false commentary, we thought, surely there was an easier way to do this, and that’s why and how Kick Up was born.”

“It’s unfair to those of us working in the industry, who are up working in all elements 365 days of the year at 3am, 6am or in the early hours of the night caring for these incredible athletes.”

“Then to be hit with such vitriol year in year out, particularly Melbourne Cup week; and sadly, it tends to be that the irrational are the loudest, and Kick Up is for our industry, horses and people.”