Review into whip rule reaches boiling point
The Australian Jockeys' Association is calling for national uniformity on whip rule penalties after a controversial protest was dismissed at Morphettville on Saturday, adding further heat to the whip rule debate that has long been the subject of a Racing Australia review.
Jockey Jeffrey Maund was fined $1700 and suspended for four meetings on Saturday after exceeding the whip rule in a narrow win on Classy Joe, but escaped demotion after the trainer of the runner-up, David Jolly, lodged a protest.
Racing Australia is still conducting its review into the whip rule and how each state penalises breaches.Credit:Getty Images
Maund used the whip 13 times, eight times more than permitted, before the 100-metre mark and also five times in consecutive strides, with the winning margin declared a half-head.
However, stewards dismissed the protest as they could not determine whether the runner-up would have won the race had Maund not broken the whip rule.
Racing Victoria's chairman of stewards Robert Cram said there was a "general understanding" across the country that it is difficult to measure how much effect whip strikes prior to the 100-metre mark have on margins.
In Victoria, under more stringent penalties which were announced last month, Maund would have received a minimum mandatory suspension of 11 meetings plus a fine for exceeding the whip rule by eight. Cram believes Victoria now has a system in place that is more likely to deter jockeys from blatant breaches.
Meanwhile in Queensland, Ryan Wiggins was slapped with a seven-meeting ban after using the whip seven times before the 100-metre mark in a race on Saturday, two more than permitted, also under more stringent rules.
"Consistency across all states would be good," AJA chief executive Martin Talty said.
"You've got more and more jockeys riding interstate. You have a lot of jockeys based in south-east Queensland that come and ride in north-east New South Wales and vice versa.
"We're one industry so there should be a consistent rule across all states."
However Talty said decisions about protests and potential disqualifications were a matter for stewards. Only on one occasion when two horses dead-heated in a 2016 race on the Sunshine Coast have stewards upheld a protest relating to a whip rule breach.
Just months after last year's Melbourne Cup, in which jockey Michael Walker deliberately breached the whip rule in an attempt to get Prince Of Arran first past the post, Racing Victoria chairman Brian Kruger said he expected stewards would discuss how to further penalise intentional breaches of the whip rule and propose changes as part of a Racing Australia review that remains ongoing.
"The penalties for intentional breaches of the rules in my mind is something we have to look at in the short term and it is something I know was discussed at the [December] Chairman of Steward's Conference," Kruger told RSN Radio in January.
"I won't preempt what they are putting to Racing Australia out of that, but it is something that will be put in front of Racing Australia relatively soon.
"It would have been a horrible look if a jockey breached the whip rule in the Melbourne Cup and won the race and basically doing it intentionally."
But Cram said stewards have only discussed the whip rule itself, not protests or the option to disqualify horses.
Racing Australia is still conducting its review into the whip rule and how each state penalises breaches.
"There is an ongoing review but I don't want to talk about specifics," RA chairman Greg Nicholls said on Sunday.
"There's a review; it has a very broad scope so I'll just leave it as simple as that.
"The whip rule is rigid, it's not the issue. The issue is penalty more so than the rule."