Racing chiefs under pressure to avoid full-blown jockeys’ strike in wake of drastic new whip rules
THEY say Christmas is the season of giving.
But for racing chiefs, it could be the season of giving-in to jockeys’ demands.
That whiff in the air of weighing rooms up and down the country isn’t unwashed jock straps (gross, sorry).
No, it’s the scent of full-blown rebellion and they are ready to meet their words with actions.
Over the last week, riders have been angrily voicing their concerns about the new whip rules, which are due to come into effect early next year.
After a pain-staking, BHA-led review of the ‘pro-cush’, it was decided that it could only be used in the back-hand position in future.
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Any breaches of the rules will be met with harsher penalties and if a jockey goes more than a couple over the stroke limit it could result in disqualification.
Case in point - if this penalty structure was in place in April, Sam Waley-Cohen and Noble Yeats would have lost the Grand National and the huge chunk of wonga that comes with it.
The new rules were announced in the summer, but it appears to have only just dawned on jockeys how significant these changes are going to be.
Many have been horrified in recent weeks to have it pointed out to them that a minor breach under the current rules, which would result in a short ban or fine, would be met with a much heavier punishment in future.
Riders and the BHA are now set for a period of crunch talks, with a four-week bedding-in period of the new rules due to start over jumps on January 9 and on the Flat in late February.
For the first time since 2011 - the last time the whip rules were changed - there is a real threat of a jockey's strike.
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A crisis was narrowly avoided then, just like it was in Scandinavia in April this year when jockeys announced they were walking out over new whip rules.
But I've been told that the discontent goes as high up as Ryan Moore, who is said to be disillusioned with the new rules and the sport's direction of travel.
No-one is better qualified to have a say on the subject, and if he were to call for action he would have the full support of the weighing room.
His boss and legendary trainer Aidan O'Brien has even felt the need to intervene, suggesting it could be 'the beginning of the end' of British racing.
One senior Flat jockey, who didn’t want to be named because he said the subject was ‘more than a bit touchy’ told me: “If they don’t listen to us it will cause big problems.
“A lot of the jockeys who have been riding for years and years weren’t consulted and to me the changes don’t make sense.
“It is hitting a lot of us now, especially with stewards showing us replays of our rides and telling us that we’d get a heavy ban under the new rules.
“I feel sorry for the guys riding at Cheltenham, especially the ones coming over from Ireland where they haven’t got any of these rules in place. A lot of them will get in trouble.
“Jockeys have been riding with the whip in the forehand their whole careers and there will be a lot of teething problems if you ask them to scrap that.
“It feels to me like this could end in a strike.”
A weighing room walkout would be an absolute disaster for racing in this country, and we could desperately do without that negative press.
I actually don't have a problem with stiffer bans and the threat of being DQ'd. But the back-hand only rule is an odd one.
It's often claimed that ‘public perception’ is the reason for all this upheaval, but the majority of people who watch and enjoy racing don’t give a toss.
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This culture of fear and self-doubt has been created within the sport - we have become scared of our own shadow.
I hope the bigwigs at the BHA can get around the table with the jocks and sort this out once and for all.
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