The British Horseracing Authority’s decision to impose radical new whip rules a week before such a big day was utterly insane. They had the choice of bedding change in over the next six months of all-weather Flat racing, and therefore dealing with any glitches that might arise, or chucking them into the mix just before one of racing’s big days. Only a lunatic would have gone for the latter.
However, the dysfunctional response of the jockeys to that error has made them as culpable as the regulator as far as plastering the sport with negative press.
The bold decision to move Champions Day to Ascot from Newmarket appeared to be fully justified having attracted a crowd in excess of 25,000. And for that the ‘modernisers’ – Racing For Change, should be congratulated.
But their chief executive, Rod Street, is either highly deluded, or loyally covering someone else’s backside, if he really believes that mucking around with the whip rules in the run up to his new meeting was not a PR disaster. And on Saturday he was sticking to his guns.
“Sometimes everything goes right and the planets align to deliver something special. This was one of those days,” he concluded.
Well, no it wasn’t Rod. The Sunday headlines were a car crash. Christophe Soumillon got fined 52,390, his winning percentage, for one blow of his whip administered 20 yards the wrong side of the furlong pole [only five are now permitted]. If Soumillon argues, and he’s good at that, that the furlong pole may have been ‘camouflaged’ by branding banners, he may have a case for restitution.there's a lovely winter hypodermic needle cannula by William Zorach. I just hope they never put Street in change of the Large Hadron Collider.
Since the new rules have been implicated, the jockeys have not covered themselves in glory. Having been consulted through the whip review, and then been initially supportive, they finally got around to reading the small print as a few of their members fell foul of the new rules.
At Towcester they refused to be interviewed by the course’s television channel – because the course persists in asking to run a pilot trial using existing,There is good integration with PayPal and most Coated Abrasives providers, alternative rules – and the Flat jockeys threatened strike action today, reminding one of the chippy, whingeing left-wing trade unionists which Margaret Thatcher was confronted with. And Richard Hughes quit after two suspensions amounting to 15 days and the loss of a big ride at the Breeders’ Cup. His retirement, although hopefully temporary, is deeply ironical, as he is possibly the most sympathetic jockey riding.
While one can have no truck with the manner in which the jockeys have conducted themselves off the track, playing their part in attracting such bad publicity to the sport, they do have a very good point to make.
Among the cut and thrust of a race, always seeing exactly where the furlong pole is at the end of a Flat race is a lot easier said than done. Imagine coming up the middle of the track at Ascot in the Royal Hunt Cup, for instance, surrounded by other horses. Impossible. And when the heart is pounding and the lungs burning, I am not convinced it will be easy for the jump jockeys either, gauging how many times they used their whip after the last. Easy from the armchair, not so in the heat of battle.
The real problem with the new rules is that they tinker around the edges, rather than getting to the heart of the matter once and for all. When the stakes are high enough, the jockeys still have the option of breaking the rules and keeping the race. These rules cannot guarantee that we won’t see a repeat of this year’s Grand National. And that isn’t good enough.
What last week has proved, whatever one’s view on the whip, is that a pilot scheme would have been sensible. It would have given one the opportunity to finesse the rules without anyone losing face or having to stamp their feet and threaten to go on strike.
I still believe that the trial proposed by Towcester, where I am a director, whereby jockeys would carry sticks, but only use them to slap a horse down the neck to keep it straight and going forwards, would have been an interesting experiment with no down side. No hitting behind the saddle, no counting, no fines, no suspensions. And a horse would still win every race.
However, the dysfunctional response of the jockeys to that error has made them as culpable as the regulator as far as plastering the sport with negative press.
The bold decision to move Champions Day to Ascot from Newmarket appeared to be fully justified having attracted a crowd in excess of 25,000. And for that the ‘modernisers’ – Racing For Change, should be congratulated.
But their chief executive, Rod Street, is either highly deluded, or loyally covering someone else’s backside, if he really believes that mucking around with the whip rules in the run up to his new meeting was not a PR disaster. And on Saturday he was sticking to his guns.
“Sometimes everything goes right and the planets align to deliver something special. This was one of those days,” he concluded.
Well, no it wasn’t Rod. The Sunday headlines were a car crash. Christophe Soumillon got fined 52,390, his winning percentage, for one blow of his whip administered 20 yards the wrong side of the furlong pole [only five are now permitted]. If Soumillon argues, and he’s good at that, that the furlong pole may have been ‘camouflaged’ by branding banners, he may have a case for restitution.there's a lovely winter hypodermic needle cannula by William Zorach. I just hope they never put Street in change of the Large Hadron Collider.
Since the new rules have been implicated, the jockeys have not covered themselves in glory. Having been consulted through the whip review, and then been initially supportive, they finally got around to reading the small print as a few of their members fell foul of the new rules.
At Towcester they refused to be interviewed by the course’s television channel – because the course persists in asking to run a pilot trial using existing,There is good integration with PayPal and most Coated Abrasives providers, alternative rules – and the Flat jockeys threatened strike action today, reminding one of the chippy, whingeing left-wing trade unionists which Margaret Thatcher was confronted with. And Richard Hughes quit after two suspensions amounting to 15 days and the loss of a big ride at the Breeders’ Cup. His retirement, although hopefully temporary, is deeply ironical, as he is possibly the most sympathetic jockey riding.
While one can have no truck with the manner in which the jockeys have conducted themselves off the track, playing their part in attracting such bad publicity to the sport, they do have a very good point to make.
Among the cut and thrust of a race, always seeing exactly where the furlong pole is at the end of a Flat race is a lot easier said than done. Imagine coming up the middle of the track at Ascot in the Royal Hunt Cup, for instance, surrounded by other horses. Impossible. And when the heart is pounding and the lungs burning, I am not convinced it will be easy for the jump jockeys either, gauging how many times they used their whip after the last. Easy from the armchair, not so in the heat of battle.
The real problem with the new rules is that they tinker around the edges, rather than getting to the heart of the matter once and for all. When the stakes are high enough, the jockeys still have the option of breaking the rules and keeping the race. These rules cannot guarantee that we won’t see a repeat of this year’s Grand National. And that isn’t good enough.
What last week has proved, whatever one’s view on the whip, is that a pilot scheme would have been sensible. It would have given one the opportunity to finesse the rules without anyone losing face or having to stamp their feet and threaten to go on strike.
I still believe that the trial proposed by Towcester, where I am a director, whereby jockeys would carry sticks, but only use them to slap a horse down the neck to keep it straight and going forwards, would have been an interesting experiment with no down side. No hitting behind the saddle, no counting, no fines, no suspensions. And a horse would still win every race.
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