the whip.

​It just never goes away, does it? The truth is this: the B.H.A.’s history in dealing with the whip issue is so poor that it is time the matter was taken out of their hands. How that is achievable I have no idea? Yet surely, we have reached the stage when enough is more than enough. The whip debate needs to be silenced.
The problem that besets finding a solution is the divide between those who cannot see what the fuss is about and those who believe the whip and its place in horse racing may become the straw that breaks the camel’s back. I am in the latter category.
In days of yore, it is perceived that it was a free-for-all, with jockeys barging and boring without censure and any amount of whipping tolerated by stewards as ‘horses were only a beast of burden’. Yet Fred Archer in conversation with a friend easily admitted ‘that I have lost more races through the use of the whip than the whip ever helped me win.’
And the B.H.A. is right to be concerned about public perception of the whip. Yet it is unconcerned that banning jockeys for many weeks when found guilty of going beyond the set number of strikes might be reinforcing public perception that the sport is inherently cruel. To ban Jim Crowley, for instance, for 20-days will have him vilified by the ignorant critic of the sport as a ‘carpet beater’, when in fact he is the absolute opposite. If Jim Crowley had used his whip ten-times in the King George & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, instead of nine-times, three above the limit, Hukum would have been disqualified, not on the day but three-days later. Would that be satisfactory?
The ignorant critic of our sport will doubtless go on social media and claim Jim Crowley was suspended for 20-days for whipping Hukum senseless in his selfish need to win at all costs, when in fact the 20-days was a combination of his ride on the day and a totting-up process that includes other, perhaps trivial, whip offences accrued over many months. When it comes to punishing jockeys, the B.H.A. would do better to look at the problem in a more rounded way. Jim Crowley’s ban looks bad for racing. Paula Muir’s 35-day ban was even worse. As is Kielan Wood’s off-the-wall suspension.
I remain fixed to my assertion that ‘1-strike and that’s it’ should be the rule. But if the racing industry as a whole is okay with 6-strikes, then I’ll go along with the consensus. The warning, though, is this: if the Labour Party were to win the General Election in 18-months, as the polls suggest, and they carry out their threat to legislate against the use of the whip in horse racing, the current debate becomes irrelevant. To this end I would suggest this: it would be a more proportionate penalty for jockeys found guilty of exceeding 6-strikes to be restricted to riding in races without the aid of using a whip in earnest. In effect, riding a finish using hands and heels only. If this was the rule on Saturday, Jim Crowley would still receive a £10,000 fine but would still be able to ride, though without the use of the whip for 20-days. I see this as a ‘happy’ compromise.
Also, in order to have real time data to hand for the day the B.H.A. might need to defend the use of the whip should a Labour Government legislate against use of the whip, a small number of races per week should be run on the flat restricting professional jockeys to riding ‘hands and heels’ as there are a number of such races for apprentices. The world line of travel on this issue is less use of the whip not more and the sport needs to ready itself for when the imposition is imposed on us.
Jockeys should not be allowed to drive the debate. They must be consulted and their views taken into consideration. The truth is though, that jockeys reliance on the whip, their belief that to be a good jockey they must be free to use the aid as they see fit, must be allied to scientific data that determines the whip is not the difference between losing and winning and might, if Fred Archer was correct, be the reason for defeat in a close finish. Flat jockeys like Dettori, Moore, Buick and Marquand prove day after day that winning is achievable without excess use of the whip.