Champion jockey Damien Oliver said he and his fellow jockeys are prepared to strike during the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival which could cost the racing industry millions of dollars.Oliver says the jockeys feel so strongly about recent changes to the whip rules, they are willing to put the country's biggest racing festival at risk.The Australian Racing Board (ARB), which introduced the new whip rule on August 1, refused to budge on any aspect of the rules when Oliver, Corey Brown and represen

Champion jockey Damien Oliver said he and his fellow jockeys are prepared to strike during the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival which could cost the racing industry millions of dollars.

Oliver says the jockeys feel so strongly about recent changes to the whip rules, they are willing to put the country's biggest racing festival at risk.

The Australian Racing Board (ARB), which introduced the new whip rule on August 1, refused to budge on any aspect of the rules when Oliver, Corey Brown and representatives from all facets of the racing industry put forward a submission to it on Thursday.

Jockeys walked off the job at race meetings in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia on Thursday after hearing their submission for changes to the rule had been rejected by the ARB.

Asked at a press conference on Friday whether he was prepared to go on strike again during the carnival, Oliver replied "I think a lot of the jockeys are".

He said he was "definitely" prepared to walk out.

"These are some of the biggest changes that have been introduced to racing in over 100 years," Oliver said.

"Jockeys can't be expected to adapt overnight to these conditions. They have been forced upon us, they haven't given us the chance to work under these rules.

"We feel so strongly about this issue and the ARB are supposed to be supporting the participants who want this rule changed, the jockey, the trainer, the owner and the breeder.

"It needs to be changed. It's a minor adjustment to sweeping changes that have been brought in and we feel that with this minor adjustment there will be no problems with the rule.

"We accept those sweeping changes except for one minor adjustment over the last 100 metres."

The Australian Jockeys' Association (AJA) wants jockeys to be able to use their discretion over how many times they hit horses in the last 100 metres of a race as long as they are in contention.

Under the new rule, riders can use the whip for five strikes before the 200m.

Inside the 200m, they are restricted to three consecutive strikes and apart from that they can only use the whip every second stride.

Along with the new rule, the ARB introduced padded whips to lessen the impact on horses.

The ARB says it will reconsider the matter in February as originally planned.

AJA general manager Des O'Keeffe said the jockeys had agreed to ride this weekend but they would need to see some progress by Monday.

"We'll know on Monday at our phone conference nationally exactly where we're placed," O'Keefe said.

"We can't rule it (industrial action) out. We can't say that it will or won't happen.

"It's really up to the Australian Racing Board to come back to us and re-engage with us about solving this issue."

O'Keeffe said the whip rule was compromising riders' safety.

"We are getting advice as to who is going to be responsible if a rider is injured in the final stages of a race and they blame the introduction of the whip rule for that injury," he said.

Meanwhile, Victorian Racing Minister Rob Hulls said he was confident the dispute would be resolved before the Spring Carnival.

"This matter will be resolved, there is no question or doubt about that. It's a matter of when it's resolved and my view is it ought be resolved as soon as possible," Mr Hulls told ABC Radio.

"I understand the parties are very close to resolving the issue."

Mr Hulls said there was a health and safety issued involved given jockeys need to be able to control the horses.