Rachael Blackmore starts a six-day suspension today due to her use of the whip at Cheltenham. It ends before the start of next week’s Aintree action, so no biggie. More noteworthy was a similar lack of fuss over the whip generally at the Cheltenham Festival, evidence perhaps of how the sport’s uneasy compromise with the whip might be sticking.
Blackmore got in trouble in the Ultima Handicap Chase when she was judged to have used one more than the permitted seven strikes from jumping the second-last fence on board The Short Go. As the race was a Class One contest, the penalty for exceeding the limit was doubled by the British Horseracing Authority’s ship referrals committee.
Some eyes were cast upwards over Blackmore’s ban. It’s not like she’s anyone’s idea of a whip-happy jockey. The usual points were made about how, in the heat of competition and on racing’s biggest stage, there’s always a danger of riders losing count when they’re trying hard to win. Inevitably, there were mutterings about optics and pandering to “antis”.
The point isn’t hard to make. Racing’s restive relationship with the whip revolves around the contradiction within numerical limits put on a vital instrument which the sport’s authorities insists doesn’t hurt horses if used correctly. Logic should dictate, then, that there’s no welfare issue involved. It can leave suspensions looking little more than pandering to the squeamish.
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As blunt and convoluted as the totting-up rules may seem to some, the times mean they’re necessary, for many reasons that do include optics
How big a minefield the totting up of strikes can be was underlined in October when Alphonse Le Grande was first in the Newmarket Cesarewitch, only for the BHA’s whip committee to disqualify him days later due to jockey Jamie Powell hitting the horse 10 times. However, on appeal, the horse was reinstated because an attempted 10th strike made inadvertent contact with the horse and didn’t really constitute a strike.
It was all convoluted and embarrassing. It was also an aberration. Stewards handing out fines and suspensions for breaches of the whip rules continue almost daily. But there’s been no ‘spectacular’ such as the Alphonse Le Grande case. Instead, there’s day-to-day evidence of the awkward accommodations involved in policing the whip.
Earlier this week, the Scottish rider Nicola Currie got hit with a massive 39-day suspension under the BHA’s totting-up rules. Currie didn’t make excuses, but admitted to a win-at-all-costs attitude that hardly tallies with claims about the modern whip being little more than some tickling stick.
Just how murky things can get was underlined too this week, when the Grand National-winning rider Ryan Mania was irate at receiving a small fine for not carrying a whip on the famously quirky Mr Incredible at Kelso last weekend. Mania said the horse doesn’t like it, which is perfectly believable, but also undercuts assurances about how vital the whip is as a control aid.
Some eyes were cast upwards over Blackmore’s ban. It’s not like she’s anyone’s idea of a whip-happy jockey
Ultimately, the whip debate has come down to finding a workable middle ground, the mores of which riders can reasonably be expected to adapt to. In German, it’s ‘Zeitstil’, style of the times. As blunt and convoluted as the totting-up rules may seem to some, the times mean they’re necessary, for many reasons that do include optics.
Just how different the old days were is starkly illustrated by film of one of the most famous finishes of all currently doing the rounds on social media ahead of Liverpool.
The 1977 dead-heat between Night Nurse and Monksfield in the Aintree Hurdle is one of the most exciting head-to-head clashes between two great champions in racing history. It is also startlingly brutal in terms of whip use. Neither horse flinches under the barrage. To audiences at the time, apparently barely an eyebrow was raised. But to a modern audience it’s a tough watch.
The sound of Peter O’Sullevan on the clip is a reminder of how much the legendary commentator subsequently achieved in changing attitudes to the whip. Not long before his death a decade ago, he was still putting up with jibes about how silly it was for anyone who’d never ridden a race telling professional jockeys they might be offside when it came to whip use.
Racing’s restive relationship with the whip revolves around the contradiction within numerical limits put on a vital instrument which the sport’s authorities insists doesn’t hurt horses if used correctly
Pinning figures to the number of times it can be used is a necessarily arbitrary exercise. It’s four in France, seven over jumps in Britain, and nine here. But to encourage the necessary behavioural change that’s required, some tangible figure had to be put in place to help police things. Because times do change, and conduct that may seem unremarkable now could look very dubious indeed in the not-too-distant future.
It’s in racing’s interests to try and anticipate what that might be. Cutting problems off at the pass is not often a strongpoint in such an intrinsically conservative game. It may be that the whip is on borrowed time anyway, when it comes to broad public acceptance of what’s acceptable in animal sports.
But continuing to adapt its use, even if through an inflexible tot, is a reputational investment in the future worth the trouble of short-term disquiet.
Something for the Weekend
With Aintree next week, this weekend’s jumps action is relatively pedestrian, although SIAM PARK (4.15) can follow up a Taunton victory earlier this month when upped in trip at Stratford tomorrow.
Champion Hurdle-winning trainer Jeremy Scott gives DON’T TELL ROSIE (3.20) a run off bottomweight in a mares handicap at Uttoxeter, and a quicker surface could help her to land a moderate contest.
