Whip dispute resolved


The battle over the new regulations restricting the use of the whip by jockeys has been resolved after a meeting in Melbourne between the Australian Jockeys Association and the Australian Racing board.

The ARB brought in a new law on August 1 which restricted the use of the whip to three strikes before the 200m mark, one instance of three consecutive strikes then not in consecutive strides after that point. The AJA saw that as unworkable and when the ARB rejected their concerns last Thursday, it called an immediate strike, with four race meetings abandoned across Australia.

The impasse threatened to overshadow the upcoming spring carnival, but meetings on Monday and Tuesday have seen the ARB relent somewhat and allow seven strikes of the whip over the final 100m of a race, while the restriction on hitting a horse on alternate strides between the 200m and the 100m remains.
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The concern remains exactly how stewards will determine the amount of strikes allowed given that most racecourses do not have the 100m marked by a post.

However, the resolution is a significant victory for the AJA and its members after it initially appeared that their concerns would be ignored. The ARB has said it will review the law in February next year.

"There was a real commitment from (ARB chiefs) Bob Bentley and Andrew Harding to come down to us and to share our concerns which we put the other day, and weren't taken on board as they may have been," AJA chief Des O'Keefe said.

"The result is what we see today. Which gives the rider a much greater discretion. The crash and bash style has been consigned to the history books an our opinion. This is the best model when it comes to using the whip, and a decision like they've made today is going to help that occur without causing all the controversy."

Champion jockey Damien Oliver said it was a common sense solution to the whip issue.

"We wanted the jockey to be able to use it at his discretion. Don't get it wrong, we all love horses and the less we have to use the whip the better," he said. "Each rider will be able to adapt to this new rule much better thant he old rule we had."