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14 Oct 11
11:18
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Date Joined:
05 Jan 10
Some of the best horses on the planet running tomorrow and i never heard one tv/radio station mention it apart from someone saying '1/2 is a great price for a jockey to get banned on Champions day' What a week to bring in the whip rule..It would be better if they spent more time trying to get the fixture list out...as Benny Hill would say..irriots...Must be seething going on in the QIPCO H,Q...CEO is probably saying Bring me the head of Roy
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Laughable that the FACT that ALL of the worlds top 10 rates horses, besdies those retired of dead, or in Australia are racing on Saturday.... and that news and headline is consigned to page 5...
Fill your boots at 1/2
Richard Hughes says riders will break new whip rules on Champions Day
• Jockey claims rewards at Ascot will prompt them to transgress
• Says owners will defy rules and reimburse those who lose out
This is before he got banned last night
Greg Wood at Brighton
guardian.co.uk,
Richard Hughes, who will ride in all five of the main races on the inaugural Champions Day on Saturday, said here on Thursday that he feels jockeys may ignore the British Horseracing Authority's strict new rules on the use of the whip when they are racing with huge prizes and multimillion-pound stallion careers at stake at Ascot this weekend.
Hughes was one of the first riders to fall foul of the new regime when he was banned for five days at Salisbury on Monday but the penalties for jockeys on Saturday could be much more significant, as any ban is likely to result in the forfeit of the rider's share of the prize money.
Were a jockey to be found in breach of the whip rules after winning the QIPCO Champion Stakes, with a first prize of £737,230, the new rules could amount to a loss of about £54,000. That is significantly more than the record fine for any offence against the rules of racing, which is the £40,000 penalty imposed on Nicky Henderson in July 2009 for a serious breach of the anti-doping rules.
Hughes, though, believes it is impractical to expect jockeys to adhere to such strict rules in such a high-pressure situation.
"It's not good," he said. "Tony McCoy was all for them, until he rode and found out [how hard it is]. The people who made these rules have no idea how hard it is, because they don't ride.
"Frankel [the unbeaten favourite for the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes] could go from [being worth] £100m to £50m for the sake of two smacks. What would you do?"
The new rules allow jockeys to strike a horse a maximum of seven times in the course of a Flat race, and no more than five times inside the final furlong, a distinction that Hughes feels is unnecessary and potentially confusing.
"If it was just the seven, we could adapt our riding styles to the conditions and push them as far as we can," he said. "I've always thought that the last horse to get the whip is usually the one that's going to win. If you can push them past the furlong pole, you wouldn't be able to hit it seven [because of the short distance], and horses would be hit less. But you almost have to give them two before you get to the last furlong."
The new rules also forbid racehorse owners reimbursing jockeys for the loss of prize money due to a breach of the whip rules. Again, though, Hughes suspects that it is a rule that will be impossible to enforce when a rider's efforts have secured a major prize.
"Do they really think that?" he said, with a broad grin. "Do they really think that people won't be looked after?"
The BHA responded on Thursday when its chairman, Paul Roy, announced that the review group behind the new whip rules plans to reconvene "as soon as possible" to consider the complaints aired since Monday by the Professional Jockeys Association.
Richard Hughes says riders will break new whip rules on Champions Day
• Jockey claims rewards at Ascot will prompt them to transgress
• Says owners will defy rules and reimburse those who lose out
This is before he got banned last night
Greg Wood at Brighton
guardian.co.uk,
Richard Hughes, who will ride in all five of the main races on the inaugural Champions Day on Saturday, said here on Thursday that he feels jockeys may ignore the British Horseracing Authority's strict new rules on the use of the whip when they are racing with huge prizes and multimillion-pound stallion careers at stake at Ascot this weekend.
Hughes was one of the first riders to fall foul of the new regime when he was banned for five days at Salisbury on Monday but the penalties for jockeys on Saturday could be much more significant, as any ban is likely to result in the forfeit of the rider's share of the prize money.
Were a jockey to be found in breach of the whip rules after winning the QIPCO Champion Stakes, with a first prize of £737,230, the new rules could amount to a loss of about £54,000. That is significantly more than the record fine for any offence against the rules of racing, which is the £40,000 penalty imposed on Nicky Henderson in July 2009 for a serious breach of the anti-doping rules.
Hughes, though, believes it is impractical to expect jockeys to adhere to such strict rules in such a high-pressure situation.
"It's not good," he said. "Tony McCoy was all for them, until he rode and found out [how hard it is]. The people who made these rules have no idea how hard it is, because they don't ride.
"Frankel [the unbeaten favourite for the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes] could go from [being worth] £100m to £50m for the sake of two smacks. What would you do?"
The new rules allow jockeys to strike a horse a maximum of seven times in the course of a Flat race, and no more than five times inside the final furlong, a distinction that Hughes feels is unnecessary and potentially confusing.
"If it was just the seven, we could adapt our riding styles to the conditions and push them as far as we can," he said. "I've always thought that the last horse to get the whip is usually the one that's going to win. If you can push them past the furlong pole, you wouldn't be able to hit it seven [because of the short distance], and horses would be hit less. But you almost have to give them two before you get to the last furlong."
The new rules also forbid racehorse owners reimbursing jockeys for the loss of prize money due to a breach of the whip rules. Again, though, Hughes suspects that it is a rule that will be impossible to enforce when a rider's efforts have secured a major prize.
"Do they really think that?" he said, with a broad grin. "Do they really think that people won't be looked after?"
The BHA responded on Thursday when its chairman, Paul Roy, announced that the review group behind the new whip rules plans to reconvene "as soon as possible" to consider the complaints aired since Monday by the Professional Jockeys Association.
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