More Whip Furore?  I hope not. The padded whip is the finest contribution to Animal Welfare ever created, and was produced by British Racing. It is now a worldwide winner.

With that superb achievement in the bag, all that is required is for the BHA to roll up its sleeves and celebrate this monumental triumph on a daily basis and loudly.

In 2011, when the whip argument was at its fiercest, jockey Jim Crowley arranged to be interviewed by Greg Wood, a leading sporting scribe on the The Guardian. Blows were struck, arguments were exchanged, pictures were snapped, the madding crowd could not forebear to cheer the unanimous verdict: the padded whip did not hurt and still doesn’t.

Sadly, the BHA has failed to follow up this initiative. More recently the only word on the subject from BHA Chief Executive Nick Rust has been a rather tentative “The padded Whip has a place in Racing – because it is padded.”

Is that leadership? Far from it. Anyone would think that he is ashamed of the rod that does not hurt.

The Whip Rules are also in need of help. Please, reader, be patient and read all about it, because this is vital stuff.

See Rules of Racing, 2018, p. 23:

“WHEN TO HOLD AN ENQUIRY (into whip use)

The stewards should consider how the rider has used the whip during the course of the entire race, with particular attention to its use in the closing stages, and relevant factors, such as:

a) The manner and the degree of force of the whip use.

b) The purpose for which it was used.

c) The distance over which it was used, and whether the number of times it was used was reasonable and necessary.

d) Whether or not the horse was continuing to respond.

Provided that the manner in which the whip was used was measured, Stewards may choose to disregard occasions WHEN THE WHIP HAS BEEN USED FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS:

(In All Races)

a) To keep a horse in contention or to maintain a challenging position prior to the closing stages of a race.

b) To maintain a horse’s focus and concentration.

c) To correct a horse that is hanging.

d) Where there is only light contact with the horse.

 

(In Jump Races)

e) Following a mistake at an obstacle.

f) To correct a horse that is running down an obstacle.”

 

The above is a proper rule. It deals with circumstances of considerable complexity and it does a very proper job. Note one thing in particular:  it says that in many situations counting hits to assess impropriety is not obligatory or desirable.

Do our professional stewards apply it?

No, they ignore it. Under previous management they have grown accustomed to so doing. This is the result of ten years of misguided brainwashing which the present powers-that-be have done nothing to correct. The idea that stewards should relate their verdict to what they have seen of the jockey’s entire performance never enters their heads. They start counting hits as soon as the runners set off and as though their lives depend on it.

There you have a good rule, and disgraceful stewarding. Is there any possibility that the BHA will wake up and do the necessary?

Compulsory Hind Shoes. If 98 percent of runners already subscribe to the “all round shoeing” principle (as suggested in the Racing Post), this was just another example of the BHA trying to jump aboard the Animal Welfare wagon without having to do a tap or lift a finger. I congratulate the Board on having reconsidered its position in this area.

Instead of “posing”, the BHA might well examine its “in” tray occasionally.

The Rolling Maul, for example, has been a blot on the Starting landscape for ten years now. The way that horses are treated during the big-field N.H. starting process is an Animal Welfare disgrace as well as a Fairness concern. Horses fall if their view of the first two fences is inadequate. Does one need to spell out the potential consequences?

(See Donec SPORT 69:

Para headed Donec  re. 4 December 2016

1.35 AINTREE (3/12/16) Becher Chase. 22 horses crammed together, jogging and trotting round in circles and getting more and more stressed. Field heads for the starting gate and grinds to a halt. FALSE START.

AFTER THE RE-START TWO FELL AT THE FIRST, TWO MORE AT THE SECOND. 

For five years Donec among others had been telling the BHA that improper starting procedures distract horses and can cause falls at the early obstacles, because the horses cannot see what lies ahead. How many fallers at the early obstacles must there be before the penny drops? 

 

One final glance at the

2018 Rules of Racing (Page 17), where one will find:

“Interference in Races.

Dangerous Riding.

Guiding Principles:

 a) In cases of Dangerous riding, the placings must be altered as the interferer must be disqualified.”

There may well be circumstances in which disqualification is appropriate, but to make disqualification obligatory ties the hands of the stewards in a way that is seriously counter-productive.

As a result, stewards have taken to reducing the charge to “careless riding.”  A lesser sin, meriting an inadequate punishment. This does nothing towards reducing dangerous riding. In fact it encourages jockeys to take risks.

In cases of dangerous riding it is right that the jockey should be punished with knobs on, but the horse, the owner, the trainer, the stable staff and the punter are almost certainly blameless.

There is nothing clever about an arrangement that encourages professional stewards to mislead the whole racing world. These are people who have become accustomed to falsifying their reports and they show no signs of abandoning this  perversion of the course of justice.

These are also the people whom the BHA is about to empower with a monopoly of the management of racecourse justice, if common sense does not come to the rescue of the sport before it is too late.

The stewards must learn that they are paid to tell the truth. Is that asking too much?

Please note that the “Principles” applicable to the Interference Rules also include the following:

“e) The benefit of the doubt (after an interference offence) must go to the horse that finished in front.”

A suggestion (in rather garbled English) that if a jockey interferes with a rival and then finishes ahead of his victim he will get away with it. Not a good idea.

Much to grumble about and genuine concern about the way in which the BHA is behaving these days. It is unfortunate that its failure to function like a group of rational animals has coincided with a period during which the words “leadership role” have never been far from Mr Rust’s lips.

Donec wishes the victims of whatever ails them a speedy recovery.

Reasons to be cheerful? One – the sight of the divine Briony Frost and the equally divine Frodon doing a clear round at Cheltenham last Saturday. In my 70 years as a racing groupie I have never seen anyone presenting horses at fences better than Miss Frost. In addition, I am surely not alone in noticing that her judgement of pace is almost magical.

Thank you, Briony. Thank you, Frodon. BHA, do try to keep up.

Best wishes,

Donec.