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How many other sports let the victor keep the prize even though they blatantly broke the rules.
The more I know the less I understand.
Football you could argue does to some extent (Maradonna in the 1986 World Cup comes to mind) lol and Lance Armstrong would have had he not finally confessed to cheating.
Horse Racing is slightly different to other sports in that it isn’t simply a human being competing using inanimate objects/equipment. A lot of its rules are a subjective opinion based around applying guidelines. The whip rules were in that mould until the set number of whip strikes was brought in and then that subjectivity went out the window and we now judge a jockey using the whip 7 or more times (compared to one who uses it a total of 6 times) as a ‘cheat’ even though we have no quantifiable way of proving those extra strikes made the difference between winning and losing.
Sadly, the sport has made this rod (and consistently re-designed it over the years) entirely for its own back by pandering to a group that will never be appeased until racing is banned outright.
A common sense approach was needed regarding the frequency of strikes/missuse/giving a horse time to respond/unecessary strikes etc instead of applying an arbitary number of strikes which makes little to no distinction between a 5F sprint on fast summer ground and a 4m Chase on deep winter ground.
By the end of Tuesday, the ‘perception’ to those that want a ban (and maybe a few that will have inadvertantly stumbled across a racing paper with the headline) will be that another jockey has been heavily banned for ‘abusing’ a horse and that it is a cruel sport and should be banned.
I have no doubt that Shadwell will also be looking for a new jockey to ride Mostahdaf in the Juddmonte too.
Different rules in Ireland but Henry Adams got hit 11 times on debut in a maiden. I can only assume the money was down.
I’ve more problem with that than the ride Hukum was givenCharles Darwin to conquer the World
Crowley on ITV now, apparently he used the whip 9 times (i.e. one under disqualification) and he is saying that they were both called by the Stewards after – currently doesn’t know what his punishment is yet but he said not a single jockey in the weighing room agrees with the current whip rules as they stand……..yet we were told that jockeys were consulted befoehand
http://media.britishhorseracing.com/bha/Whip/Whip_Rules_May_2023.pdf
Looking at the rules (being 3 over the limit), he could be getting 20 days but anything over 9 days means he will also be fined 40% of his winnings.
Not all jockeys apparently. Not sure why he looked so disappointed he broke the rules and I wonder if the placings would really have been changed had he used it 10 times.
The interview with Ralph Beckett afterwards was painful.The more I know the less I understand.
That will be the ultimate test – there is wiggle romm within those rules where strikes can be discounted in the overall total if they view it as being used for saftey purposes.
Westover did markedly shift to his right under pressure causing Hornby to switch his whip to his right hand and that use could have been excused under that sfatey purposes rule and as such not counted in his overall total strikes.
Entirely possible that the Committee could use that part of the rules to avoid having to disqualify any horse if the total strike number is say 10 or 11 (i.e. on or one over the automatic disqualification level).
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