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- Total Posts 17716
I must agree. As The Mikado almost says of the BHA:
Their object all sublime
They’ll never achieve in time
To let the punishment fit the crime,
The punishment fit the crime.Watched a replay of the 5.00 Salisbury. As Lydia Hislop pointed out Richard Hughes was perilously close to above shoulder height.
Kieran Fox, apart from those who backed his mount, its hard to see what he actually did right in the race, hung away from the whip, didnt pull his whip through, didnt allow his mount time to respond, it was a bit of a horror show and I think he would deserve to be banned under the old rules.
Even those morons at Animal Aid will concede that the 850 whip bans last year left marks on a little over 1% of the horses involved.
Jockey given 15 days whilst trying for his life.
you couldn’t make it up…
15 days not nearly enough for K Fox. What could he have said in mitigation? 37% over the limit, 12/1 to 15/2, horse keeps the race. What were his instructions?
Such a flagrant flouting of the new rules on day one simply says to the BHA, ‘make all the rules you want, when the money’s down we’re going to break them’.
If the BHA are to retain any credibility here, they should review the punishment (and the rules again if necessary) and stand K Fox down for the rest of the year. The trainer should also be heavily penalised.
These rules are ridiculous. Wait until the NH kicks in. Thank god they havent ruined racing this side of the Irish Sea.
15 days not nearly enough for K Fox. What could he have said in mitigation? 37% over the limit, 12/1 to 15/2, horse keeps the race.
What were his instructions?
Win the race and bring home the money is my guess!
In the heat of the moment when the adrenaline is pumping there is only going to be one thought in their minds and that’s to do what they can to win.
I really fear for the lower end of racing….the lesser stables with the poorer horses. I think there are many struggling already and owners at the lower end will just get fed up in my opinion. Bigger yards won’t feel the difference of horses finishing out of the places for being tenderly ridden but I reckon the smaller ones will.
Zamorston – there’ll be the same number of horses finishing placed in those races so the net effect will be nil in terms of prize money for smaller yards/owners.
But, yes, there might be a sense of frustration I agree.
They have ruined racing in the UK. Especially the NH. They found the whip wasnt cruel, thats the funny part. I hope betting and attendances fall as this will sour alot of core fans and punters.
The sport is in big trouble. Its no longer a betting proposition over there.
The festival and grand national will suffer greatly. 8 taps in the grand national, thats a laugh. The legend Ginger McCain will be turning in his grave.
They have ruinned National Hunt racing.
They haven’t even run a single race with the new rules Fitzer but you’ve written it off already!
I said in an earlier post somewhere that what now needs to happen is that we live with the rules (for, say, a year) and then review. If it’s not working then they can review limits/penalties/interpretations, etc. Sooner if it becomes palbably clear that there is a problem.
In the meantime we should sit and watch, not condemn before a single race has taken place.
A year may be too long though and too much damage may have already been done.
In tough times how many small time owners will get fed up when a jockey comes back after a race and says…"sorry Mr owner I couldn’t use the whip any more than I did otherwise I would have copped a ban and had no pay or income for three weeks….your horse may well have won with a little more encouragement and maybe 3 or 4 smacks but I’m afraid that’s the rules"
I’m pretty sure there will be some who will say…"ya know what, I’m not having this I’m not paying out this amount of money for training costs, vets bills etc, etc to get to a racecourse and have that happen.
All because of some crazy new ruling when there didn’t seem that much wrong with the old way!!
- Total Posts 17716
15 days not nearly enough for K Fox. What could he have said in mitigation? 37% over the limit, 12/1 to 15/2, horse keeps the race. What were his instructions?
Such a flagrant flouting of the new rules on day one simply says to the BHA, ‘make all the rules you want, when the money’s down we’re going to break them’.
If the BHA are to retain any credibility here, they should review the punishment (and the rules again if necessary) and stand K Fox down for the rest of the year. The trainer should also be heavily penalised.
I’m surprised to such emotional rhetoric from you of all posters,
Steeplechasing
! Several people (though a minority) have expressed themselves "satisfied" with the new rule, and are ready to give it a chance.
Yet the very first time the rule is employed
sees you crying "not nearly enough"!
What would be enough? Where would you like to draw the line?
"Flagrant flouting…"
What evidence do you have that this apprentice jockey, the trainer concerned, his trainer-mentor, or the owner consciously set out to break the rules this afternoon? You have none whatsoever.
And how, pray, would you propose to penalise the trainer? Remove his/her prize money too? Confiscate 15 days keep from the horse? Take away all prizemoney? Void all bets?
Instead of making arbitrary accusations, does it not make more sense instead to question the basis on which these unworkable rules – for there I agree with you – is formulated? Unless these rules are removed swiftly, in consultation with the jockeys, the BHA will find itself losing whatever small "control" of the sport it is trying so ineffectually to maintain.
"He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind."
- Total Posts 17716
Zamorston – there’ll be the same number of horses finishing placed in those races so the net effect will be nil in terms of prize money for smaller yards/owners.
But, yes, there might be a sense of frustration I agree.
I think
Zamorston
‘s point is that the owners, who are not all racing experts, like the jockeys to be seen to be trying to give them that moment of victory. The
"sense of frustration"
will swiftly turn to
"sod this for a game of soldiers"
, and swift removal of assets to the other side of the Irish Sea, where racing is still conducted in an exciting, committed – and perfectly legal – manner.
- Total Posts 17716
In the meantime we should sit and watch, not condemn before a single race has taken place.
I believe the late, lamented Emperor Nero said something similar – I forget exactly what – when the first whiff of smoke from the city assaulted his tender nostrils.
And if this is the response to one, innocuous little race at Salisbury, which has on the very first day seen 21 days handed out in punishments – 6 of them to one of the handful of our major jockeys – just imagine what it’s going to be like on
Champions Day
next Saturday.
Really, the timing of its introduction is every bit as masterful as the drafting of the rule itself!
A year may be too long though and too much damage may have already been done.
In tough times how many small time owners will get fed up when a jockey comes back after a race and says…"sorry Mr owner I couldn’t use the whip any more than I did otherwise I would have copped a ban and had no pay or income for three weeks….your horse may well have won with a little more encouragement and maybe 3 or 4 smacks but I’m afraid that’s the rules"
I’m pretty sure there will be some who will say…"ya know what, I’m not having this I’m not paying out this amount of money for training costs, vets bills etc, etc to get to a racecourse and have that happen.
All because of some crazy new ruling when there didn’t seem that much wrong with the old way!!
Jockeys ignored the old rules when it suited them Zamorston, therefore there is every reason to change the old rules.
Why would owners disappear?
There are the same number of winners.
If the old rules were the new rules and the new rules the old, then you’d get exactly the same problem, connections moaning about not being the winner.Value Is Everything- Total Posts 17716
Why would owners disappear?
There are the same number of winners.But they are
different
winners. We’re agreed that this is all about
perception
: but nobody seems to have taken small owners’s
perceptions
into account at all. They want
their
horse to win, not somebody else’s. And if these new rules – evidently disastrous after only one race’s calamities – are going to make one owner pack up and head for the Emerald Isle, where they order these things properly, then BHA is going to have to do something pretty swiftly to address the disillusion.
And that is leaving aside the little questions of jockey strikes, punter riots and media mockery, all of which BHA can expect in the near future. The mockery has already started on various media outlets.
It is a PR (and
perception
) disaster after one day.
Even those morons at Animal Aid will concede that the 850 whip bans last year left marks on a little over 1% of the horses involved.
Jockey given 15 days whilst trying for his life.
you couldn’t make it up…
A jockey thinks he can blatantly cheat & get away with it?
You’re right, you couldn’t make it up.
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