Hang on a minute...before we all rush to give Richard Hughes a knighthood, aren't there a few things to bear in mind:
1) The PJA were consulted as part of the review 2) The majority of jockeys who were interviewed in the run-up to the implementation of the rule were reported as being supportive of the new whip quotas ("now it's black and white for us" etc) 3) The main area of contention amongst jockeys was the severity of the PENALTIES, not the restriction on the number of strokes per se 4) Hughes himself commented "I'm not a whip jockey so it won't really affect me"
I'm not an apologist for the BHA - I think deliberately bringing in the new rule five days before Champions' Day was badly thought-out; I think the '7 times in all but only 5 in the final furlong' element is ridiculous; if it's deemed ok to hit a horse 7 times then it shouldn't matter at what stage those 7 strokes are administered - but some of this reaction from jockeys smacks (no pun intended, sorry) of petulance, stirring and jumping on a bandwagon because a small number are unable to follow a set of clear-cut rules on which their own representative body was consulted.
Hughes is... (take your pick and tick/delete as appropriate)
A muppet A Spoiled brat, relying on daddy in law's horses and wld not last ten mins on the open market A one trick pony A whiner In Coolmore marketing team's back pocket In the press far too often Incredibly boring INdisputably a grade A Wnker
Hughes is... (take your pick and tick/delete as appropriate)A muppetA Spoiled brat, relying on daddy in law's horses and wld not last ten mins on the open marketA one trick ponyA whinerIn Coolmore marketing team's back pocketIn the press far too ofte
'If' the whip doesn't hurt but encourages a horse to try a little harder then Hughes would have more sympathy if he rode all his 2yo newcomers a little more equally. Tonight's racing as an example Regal Gold (5.50)had been a weak 20-1 shot on his debut at Newmarket back in August, clearly a nursery type(!) and Hughes used the whip 0 times that day. By contrast More Than Words(7.20) was a very strong 6-5 fav tonight on her debut and she got hit 6 times inside the last 220 yards, that's less than 2 seconds to respond between hits. 'If' the rules were different........
'If' the whip doesn't hurt but encourages a horse to try a little harder then Hughes would have more sympathy if he rode all his 2yo newcomers a little more equally. Tonight's racing as an example Regal Gold (5.50)had been a weak 20-1 shot on his deb
FFS, someone in this festering industry finally has the guts to makes a stand, and all you want to do is slate him.
Standing up to be counted happens, er, never, in this industry, and thank God someone has finally got the balls to do it, imo...
FFS, someone in this festering industry finally has the guts to makes a stand, and all you want to do is slate him.Standing up to be counted happens, er, never, in this industry, and thank God someone has finally got the balls to do it, imo...