whatever they decide, it must be trialled first.

​At some point before the decade is out, the B.H.A. will announce their latest plan of action regarding use of the whip. I suspect whatever rule change is imposed, jockeys will object, whilst others will declare the end of the racing world is nigh and no aspect of the sport will ever be the same.
I hope any rule change, whether it goes anywhere close to what I would to like to see happen or not, needs to be radical, long-lasting and viable for every type of racing the sport caters for. The B.H.A. have chased this contentious hare now for decades, usually tinkering around the edges of the problem, hoping to not offend too many people and wanting a round of applause for their nuanced effort to bring the debate to a conclusion.
And this is my worry as I, along with the sport’s front-line participants, I suspect, await the B.H.A.’s final solution to the on-going saga of what to do about the whip with a large degree of trepidation. As with many others, I filled out the B.H.A. survey, chucking my two pennyworth into the ring, though I suspect my voice will carry far less weight than that of the great and the good of the sport.
The aspect of my view that I did not emphasise on the survey and which I believe should be adopted before the whip rule is amended yet again is that the preferred proposal should be trialled for at least 12-months before it is signed into racing law. If, which I doubt, they adopt my suggestion of ‘one crack and no more’, there should be an escalating number of trial races for one complete flat season and one complete National Hunt season, incorporating every type of race, including Group races on the flat and Grade 1’s over jumps. Not only would this give the B.H.A. a huge amount of data and input from jockeys, trainers, owners etc, ensuring there is a proper scientific study, but it would allow jockeys time to adjust and perfect the new way of riding races so that when the time comes when it is enshrined as a rule of racing every jockey will be up to speed from day one.
There has never been any ‘hands and heels’ races for professional jockey thus far which suggests the B.H.A. has always run scared of upsetting jockeys. And, of course, though it is to be congratulated for seeking wisdom and guidance from all quarters of the sport, the B.H.A., who are conducting this survey in an attempt to give the sport a more wholesome image, should have employed an independent company to poll members of the public on their views of the sport and what aspects of it they dislike and would want changed before they considered horse racing as an acceptable entertainment to them.
I live outside of horse racing communities and I can assure you that the two aspects the public find hard to accept about the sport are fatalities, which the sport can do little to change, and use of the whip, which the sport does have the power to change.
This has to be got right this time, whether it is no whip, jockeys banned for taking a hand off the reins, or one crack or two, or something else. I believe the long-term future of the sport depends on the B.H.A. getting this latest alteration to the whip rule right.

On a similar subject. Why, when wishing and dreaming for more people to engage with horse racing, do people within the sport want to follow the example of Formula 1, a sport that is uncompetitive, to my eyes as thrilling as watching the a speeded-up M5 on a Saturday afternoon, that has a gender-bias of 100% and whose leading lights possess the sportsmanship of a snake entering a birds nest. 
The Netflix documentary on Formula 1 may have been successful but horse racing is a different kettle of fish altogether. They may swear and curse at Mercedes if Hamilton or Bottas wreck a car in qualifying or in a race but no one is going to mourn the destruction of that car. The reaction to a favourite horse losing its life on a racecourse will produce real tear-jerking emotion amongst those with a hands-on relationship to it but the reaction of the viewing public will not be sympathetic to the sport. There is a morbid fascination to watch a £1-million car being hoisted on to the back of a recovery truck but will the cameras linger over the removal from the racecourse of a dead horse? And the death of a human at the wheel of a racing car will be cause for little complaint by the viewers. No so the death of a horse. Nails in coffins comes to mind.
Our sport goes hand-in-glove with gambling; it is too much of a gamble for the sport to trust an outside body to play fair with the sport we all love and care for.