After 10 months of review the British Horse Racing Association have finally finished their review on the Jockey's use of the whip. They have set 19 guidelines for the Jockey to adhere to. Far too many to publish but below is a breakdown of the most important points.
- Jockeys are to be limited to 7 hits in flat races and 8 in hunt races. Only 5 of these can be administered in the last furlong.
- Jockeys who are handed a three day ban will be fined and lose a percentage of the prize money
- If a Jockey appears before the disciplinary panel for use of the whip three or more times their license will be reviewed
I think that over all the Jockeys are happy to have clarification of the guideline and punishments. They might well go over the 7 or 8 whips in a race but should now have no excuse to do it regular. The Jockeys needed some fit punishment as they were frequently flouting the rules and picking up bans. But these bans never had any affect on the actual race they ran in. They could quite easily pick up a ban in a group one race for the over use of the whip and also pick up a nice fat check so the fear of over whipping was never present. For instance if you excessively used the whip in the Grand National and won, you stand to pick up your share of the prize money which would be around 6-8% of 1 million pound. A nice bonus of some thing near £40,000 and a few weeks holiday.
Over all, I think this will be good for Jockeys, trainers, owners and of course the horses. The guidelines will be in place from the 10th of March.
