RACING Victoria chief steward Terry Bailey believes the introduction of padded whips and restricted use of them, which comes into force on Saturday at Caulfield, will face its greatest test at this year's spring carnival, reports Patrick Bartley of The Age.His report adds: From Saturday, jockeys must carry padded whips and are limited to three consecutive strokes of the whip in the final 200 metres. Bailey maintains that jockeys "are prepared enough" for the meeting at Caulfield but is

RACING Victoria chief steward Terry Bailey believes the introduction of padded whips and restricted use of them, which comes into force on Saturday at Caulfield, will face its greatest test at this year's spring carnival, reports Patrick Bartley of The Age.

His report adds: From Saturday, jockeys must carry padded whips and are limited to three consecutive strokes of the whip in the final 200 metres. Bailey maintains that jockeys "are prepared enough" for the meeting at Caulfield but is concerned that the new rules will be tested when the higher-profile races begin in late September.

"I think bread-and-butter race meetings in winter will be OK, in fact, I've been impressed in the last month how jockeys on the whole have adapted to the changes. It's a cultural change and I was worried two or three months ago that the August 1 deadline wouldn't be met," Bailey said yesterday. "I'm confident now that jockeys will be able to adapt, but when the bigger prizemoney comes along in the spring, that could be a different story altogether. They must remember that the rules have changed and if they breach those rules they could lose part or all of their riding percentage which in the spring is a large amount of money."