BHA Whip Rule Controversy

[Aidymac]

I am not sure if i am in the minority or not, but I am absolutely disgusted at the way the BHA have treated a couple of jockeys in the last two weeks. Aidan Coleman, who gave Emperor's Choice one of the best rides you will see to get up in the final strides. The stewards at Chepstow had no problem with the ride and even the main man at the BHA was quoted saying "What a fantastic ride" right after the race. 2 weeks later, the BHA called Aidan in and handed him a ban, where I am sure 99% of people thought it was a terrific ride.. Moving on to Lizzie Kelly on Tea For Two at the weekend, who won by 16 lengths. I had the pleasure of backing the horse, but Lizzie was also handed a ban for giving the horse two reminders when clear.. Clearly, she gave the horse a couple of reminders just to keep the horse galloping, as the ground was very sticky. Another thing was the fact she did not look around, she did not know she was so far clear, and she had her sights set on what was ahead, not behind. I thought it was an absolute disgrace to give these jockeys a ban. Let's also be clear that it has been proven the new whip does not hurt a horse in the slightest. Another very young jockey, forget the name and course, but he is a 16 year old lad learning his trade. He should have won the race but he nearly took the wrong course. The boy, and let's be clear he is a boy, was in bits after the race, and the BHA banned him for a long time. It is nurturing young jockeys need, not this style of barbaric bullying from the BHA. Rant over, it just infuriated me. :lol

[Jimmy2shoes]

Re: BHA Whip Rule Controversy Mmmm its a never ending saga Aidy, the only people who really know when and where the whip should be used is of course the jockey on the horses back. Nobody likes to see a horse being beaten up BUT the biggest amount of jockeys simply would not do that and love the animals, lots of them are very attached to certain animals, the whip rule is one of they subjects that's always going to rear its head, probably even more so on a Saturday when the biggest amount of people are watching. The young jockey you are talking about is Jake Launchbury, he was right to be banned, but his ban length was a bit excessive, its a lesson in life he will never forget.

[Trotter]

Re: BHA Whip Rule Controversy I think the basic problem is that jockeys will always break whip rules to win big races The only solution is to disqualify the horse if the whip rules have been broken The problem then just goes away because the jockeys that keep breaking whip rules will become unemployed and end up as stable lads Coleman should have been done on the day........the Chepstow stewards missed it, they should get a fine as well !.......I mean really, there's several of them and they can look at replays. It's not like a Ref missing a dive in the penalty area. and I suspect I'm the one in the minority !

[BillyHills]

Re: BHA Whip Rule Controversy Coleman is due in front of the Chepstow stewards on the 16th of Jan. I've no doubt they will ban him for a week or whatever. He did use excessive force to win but whether it was abusive to the horse is very questionable and i'm sure none of the connections, the trainer or anyone who backed the horse minded one bit. I think the whip rules are very naive in this country and it was interesting to hear what Ruby Walsh said the other day and he pointed out that no other racing authority in the World has followed Britain's example and changed their whip rules to be the same as ours. That says everything to me and they should be changed back and each ride judged on its own merits rather than counting how many times a horse is hit after the last or whatever. As far as Lizzie Kelly is concerned, she admitted she thought the second horse was closer and she simply should have looked round and has paid the price for her error. She will learn but whether the penalty fits the crime is another question. She did exactly the same thing at Leicester the other day when winning the seller by a mile. She needs to look at that. One thing we cant have is jockeys knocking seven bells out of horses like they used to years ago, especially the Irish lads. They were unbelievable if anyone on here is old enough to remember the Monksfield days?

[Aidymac]

Re: BHA Whip Rule Controversy Haha, christ Monksfield was a long time ago mate. The thing about the Irish lads is if they are going for a big race in the UK or somewhere, they will happily take a ban if it means collecting the prize. That's why I am all for disqualifying the horse if the rules are broken. Getting onto a positive, the new tape start I think has been a revelation, it has worked extremely well.

[jayalexander]

Re: BHA Whip Rule Controversy I don't think the rules, as they are, are entirely neccessary. Weren't they brought in because of animal rights groups moaning? The whip has advanced now and is no longer the whip of old. I can't imagine that jockeys are not intent on causing the animal any harm and I'm all for bans if a vet looks the horse over after the race and sees any damage.

[Trotter]

Re: BHA Whip Rule Controversy Chepstow on Friday has already been called off so the disciplinary hearing will have to wait a bit longer.......

[Aidymac]

Re: BHA Whip Rule Controversy 4 jockeys banned already today. :lol

[robertob]

Re: BHA Whip Rule Controversy Current whip rules are a joke and the situation surrounding Coleman is facial. In my humble opinion, you either revert to the old rules, without having a fixed limit - however have a centralized panel of stewards which will review each ride in its own right and decide case by case. I believe that is much fairer and will be actually more consistent in the long term. Otherwise, ban the whip completely. Anything else will only lead us into unsatisfying situations like we have right now, again and again.