Whips, jockeys - Petrushka, alison, please explain!

[Guest]

Jockeys are only to be allowed to use the whip - ¿7? - times per race. They are threatening to go on strike. Should we care? If the rules are the same for everyone, what's the problem? Do they need to use the whip at all? Do the horses have a vote in this - after all, they have to do all the running while the jockeys just sit there.

An expert evaluation of the issues would be gratefully received.

[Petrushka]

Jockeys are only to be allowed to use the whip - ¿7? - times per race. They are threatening to go on strike. Should we care? If the rules are the same for everyone, what's the problem? Do they need to use the whip at all? Do the horses have a vote in this - after all, they have to do all the running while the jockeys just sit there.

An expert evaluation of the issues would be gratefully received.

This is a thorny issue that, in a way, has more to do with public perception than equine welfare though that comes into it as well.

It is important to remember that the whip ia as much a training aid as an encouragement and the horse needs to be told what to do. Does it hurt? As far as I can gather, it hurts little more than a slap on your own thigh woiuld do and enables the jockey to keep a straight line in a race. John Francome, for one, is strongly of the opinion that the whip should be banned and hands and heels used in a true test of jockeyship.

Uninformed public perception is that the horse is being flogged to within an inch of its life and in this day and age public perception matters. The British Horse Racing Authority took seven years to come up with a report that is totally inadequate. The new rules are preventing jockeys from riding out a race to a finish out of fear for the punishment. Strike action has been averted as the Professional Jockey Association are meeting with the BHA on Monday to hopefully resolve the issue.

Does it matter? Well, as someone who cares both about horses and racing (as jockeys themselves do), yes it does. The public will not take to percieved animal cruelty these days (people seem to matter less) so the whip will ultimately have to go.

[antongould]

As a follower of racing for many years I think this years National was not an edifying spectacle - at the end of 4 plus miles there was far too much whip. However today possibly the greatest horse I have ever seen Frankel responded to two sharp clips like a champion! I feel the new rule is sensible.

[mercia]

allowed to use the whip - ¿7? - times per race.

so is someone going to slow-motion check through all the TV footage to make sure it wasn't used 8 times? what a tedious job !!

[Richard Tarleton]

Interesting stuff, thanks Petrushka. I wonder if it's possible to construct an experiment to see how much difference the whip makes - or has this been done?

[Petrushka]

so is someone going to slow-motion check through all the TV footage to make sure it wasn't used 8 times? what a tedious job !!

This is a job for the stewards at the course and exactly this (8 strokes rather than 7) happened to jockey Richatd Hughes on Thursday prompting him to hand in his licence until this matter is resolved. The problems jockeys have with the new rules are not so much with the use of the whip as with the draconian punishments handed out to transgressors. While jockeys can, on the whole, count, it's not easy to do so when sitting on a galloping racehorse at 50 mph with the will to win.

Ultimately, the whip will, in my view, be banned.

Would like to have Alison's opinion if you are out there.

[antongould]

But I have heard it claimed that some "lazy" horses will not respond to hands and heels?

[handsomefortune]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/horse_racing/15323708.stm

[amateur51]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/hors...g/15323708.stm

A fascinating thread all round.

However, having to listened to Cornelius Lysaght's dulcets for decades as he tells me what's what in the world of the turf, I confess myself perplexed and, frankly, deeply disappointed at the state of his fizzog in that snap accompanying the link.

Shum mishtake shurely [that's quite enough of that: Ed]

[mercia]

how many strokes was Lindi St Clair allowed ............ I wonder

sorry, off-topic

[amateur51]

how many strokes was Lindi St Clair allowed ....