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Every race would indeed have a winner, but it wouldn’t necessarily be the right one (everything else being equal).
It depends on what you regard as the "right one". Similar to the argument against synthetic tracks in the US since some horses perform better on them than others.
Would we have seen a Lough Derg or a Deano’s without the whip?
We’d just see different great horses rather than the two above.
"As regards the whip, I was brought up on Lester Piggott as a child, and I just regarded it as natural. However, I find it very unsavoury in NH racing."
What other animal is it ok to whip within public view.
The racing industry cannot be exempt from certain standards in our society.
"As regards the whip, I was brought up on Lester Piggott as a child, and I just regarded it as natural. However, I find it very unsavoury in NH racing."
What other animal is it ok to whip within public view.
The racing industry cannot be exempt from certain standards in our society.
It’s rather unfair to place all the onus on the racing industry when leisure riders carry whips all the time, perhaps we should just ban whips all together if thats how you feel. At least in racing, use of the whip is more closely monitored than in leisure riding.
I’ve had to use whips on horses many times when i used to ride, and i don’t believe if done with a certain amount of cosideration un-natural aids such as whips are cruel. Believe me, many horses can be stubborn and/or lazy, and no amount of squeezing down a half ton of horse is going to get it to do something it doesn’t want to do.
Other than getting lazy and stubborn horses to move, whips are also useful for helping horses keep a straight line when they drift and controlling headstrong dominant horses.
Granted some jockeys can be a little over zealous when it comes to the whip, but i believe the BHA are going down the right line by handing out bans.
Don’t know how you categorise as the ‘right one’ Equitrack. If there were no whips the winner would be the horse that ran the fastest without being whipped. Add whips and the winner would be the one that ran fastest with the ‘aid’ of a whip. It matters neither.
And Irish is right. We’d have just as many heroes with or without the whip.
I, for one, could do without the dismal sight of horses being hit at the end of a gruelling three mile chase.
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