WITH $1 million prize-money at stake, it's a fair bet the whips will be cracking when the Golden Rose, the richest race in the Sydney Spring Carnival, is run at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.Its report adds: But wait, there's a hitch. Only days before the Big Off, punters and owners, jockeys and trainers, stewards and animal-rights activists are mired in controversy over the type of whips to be used and, more confusingly, over when, where and how often they may
WITH $1 million prize-money at stake, it's a fair bet the whips will be cracking when the Golden Rose, the richest race in the Sydney Spring Carnival, is run at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
Its report adds: But wait, there's a hitch. Only days before the Big Off, punters and owners, jockeys and trainers, stewards and animal-rights activists are mired in controversy over the type of whips to be used and, more confusingly, over when, where and how often they may be cracked.
Last night, there was even talk among jockeys, riding at Randwick, of industrial action against the new rules, while racing bodies were rumoured to be considering amending, or even suspending, the rules before this weekend's big meeting. At the centre of the dispute are new rules introduced across Australia at the beginning of this month in response to public disquiet over ''mindless flogging''. They replaced the traditional leather whip with a padded persuader, banned jockeys from raising their whip-hands above the shoulder, and restricted the frequency with which they could hit horses.
Thus, the whip can't be used more than five times before the final 200 metres of a race. Only then, in the sprint to the finish, are jockeys allowed to use the whip on consecutive strides, to a maximum of three, followed by a pause for the horse to respond. Confused? The racing world is. Form guides, the far back pages of newspapers and racing talkback shows have been flooded with complaints. On one thing, it seems, punters, animal-rights campaigners and jockeys, are agreed: the new rules appear unworkable.
The Sydney-based jockey Corey Brown, who painstakingly hones his riding technique on a mechanical horse Equicizer installed in his garage, concedes that in the heat of the final moments, ''you have a mental blind spot and revert to your old whipping style''.