British jockeys under the whip over pushing their mounts

By Michael Donhauser Oct 26, 2011, 11:20 GMT

London - Tradition dies hard in Britain, particularly when it comes to horse racing.

It took years of tough negotiations to decide how often jockeys may use the whip when urging their mounts.

While jockeys are relatively satisfied with the new rules, animal rights campaigners are up in arms against them.

The amended rules, which were adopted last week, allow jockeys to strike their horses seven times over the course of a race. Eight hits are allowed for jockeys urging their horses over the jumps in steeplechase racing. That is about half of the earlier limit.

However, the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) abandoned an attempt to set a limit of five whip strokes for the final furlong (200 metres) or for the stretch to the finish line after the last jump in steeplechase racing.

Jockeys had staged a strong protest against that rule, which was adopted on October 10. They even threatened a strike, which would have been an unprecedented event.

The BHA also regulated the whips with respect to their length and the angle at which the jockey may hit his mount, and introduced changes to the penalties that disobedient jockeys face.

'We are not happy with aspects of those rules, but we will work with the BHA on the issues that concern us,' said Kevin Darley, chief executive of the Professional Jockeys' Association, which advised its members not to strike.

The BHA ruling came after a working group had investigated the use of the whip and drawn up a 70-page report.

'Horseracing is a cultural issue in Britain,' the report said. About 5.8 million Britons attend horse races every year, according to Andrew Merriam, who chaired the working group. That makes horse racing the second most popular British sport after football.

The sport is also an important money spinner for the thousands of bookmaking outlets in the gambling-crazy country, and it raises significant revenue for the treasury through the taxes paid.

'Common sense has prevailed,' jockey Adrian Nicholls told the BBC after the BHA confirmed the final rules.

Nicholls, who was speaking shortly after being given a five-day ban for whip offences, was referring to penalties. The new rules mildened some of them, with jockeys no longer losing their prize money if suspended over breaches in whip rules, unless the ban is for seven days or more.

'I think the new rules are better for racing. The amount of (strokes) was never an issue with me, it was more the hefty bans and the financial penalties,' Nicholls said.

Animal rights activists, however, see the new rules as having important shortcomings.

The rules apply only to the races and not to what happens out of the public eye in training. And who is going to count the whip strokes, particularly in minor races that are not televised, they ask.

The Animal Aid pressure group is pressing for the whip to be abandoned altogether, but opposition in the sport is unanimous. The BHA says the country takes exemplary care of its race horses, and sees the whip as having its place in the sport 'when used in a controlled way.'

However, the BHA and animal rights activists did agree on one thing. The last Grand National at Aintree near Liverpool, the showcase of English steeplechasing that is watched on television all over the world, provided an unfortunate example of overuse of the whip.

Jockey Jason Maguire received a five-day ban for excessively whipping on the winning horse - a penalty he is likely to have shrugged off, given the race's prestige and prize money.

Less was said about two horses who died during the race after falling heavily - a regular feature of the Aintree race.