i wish the b.h.a. possessed more collective brain-cells.

​The new whip rules come into force in this country on February 6th, with a ‘bedding in period’ starting on January 9th and lasting until, I guess, February 5th. On its own there is little to quibble about, after-all, the B.H.A. had to eventually decide upon a starting point for the ban on the forehand use of the whip and the potential for disqualification if jockeys exceed the limit of eight strokes by a count of four. If the offence occurs in a major race all suspensions for jockeys will be doubled. ‘Harsh’, as the female jockey says in the t.v. commercial. 
Now, whether you are in favour of the whip being used so publicly in this woke world is another debate entirely. Though, I suspect, in time use of the whip, whether in the forehand or backhand position, will form the last skirmish in the war to save our sport extinction.
Surely someone at the B.H.A. should have had the foresight or common-sense, or the balls to speak-up, to realise that bringing in these changes five-weeks before the Cheltenham Festival, with most of the Irish jockeys having no first-hand experience of riding to the new rules, is a potential recipe for a whole load of bad publicity? In National Hunt (the new rules for the flat begin on Lincoln Handicap day on March 27th, with a similar bedding in period as for National Hunt) shouldn’t someone at the B.H.A. have displayed a greater grasp of the bigger picture and fought for a bedding in period from the first day of the new season, with the new rules kicking in five-weeks later? After the Lord Mayor’s shows at Cheltenham and Aintree.
Yet, as poor is the decision to implement the rules on the date they have chosen, neither the new rules nor the firing of the starters’ pistol is not my main concern/criticism. 
When it was decided to find a new colour for the woodwork of fences and hurdles an university was brought-in to conduct a series of trials, with the horses, seemingly, favouring white over all the others colours trialled. I am no jockey but to my eyes I believe the majority of horses are jumping more cleanly. Certainly, I have heard no complaints from jockeys.
So, why did no one put forward the suggestion that some of the better ideas put forward in the B.H.A.’s survey be trialled in races? If, for example, for two-weeks there were a dozen races restricted to no strikes of the whip, a similar trial for ‘one strike and that’s it’, a similar length of trial for the rules now to be implemented, with another trial for the Scandinavian approach. The B.H.A. would then have gathered enough data and opinions to make a judgement based on real-world racing, rather than having another shot in the dark at what might be best for horse racing in the long-term.
I am not saying that the new rules will not work. What I am saying is that no one knows if they will bring about any improvement for jockeys, horses or quieten the baying mob at our gates. When that bloody awful idea of City Street Racing was proposed, an idea dead and buried it is to be hoped, at least its proponents had the guile to conduct trials, a common-sense approach that didn’t, it seems, impress the B.H.A.
The new rules, which may or may not allow the long-running debate to be put on the backburner for a while, could easily have been drawn-up by the jockeys themselves. Little has changed for them, the strikes remain the same, they can still crack a horse on its rump eight-times, they just must not use the whip in the forehand position; they even have a four-strike leeway before disqualification comes into play.
As Racing Post journalists continue to say: the sport has a dreadful addictive habit of shooting itself in the foot. My fear is that it might just have gone and done it again. And with a little more thought it could so easily have been avoided.