RACING POST MONDAY JANUARY 16th 2012 JOCKEYS TO DISCUSS WHIP ISSUES IN KEY MEETING WITH BHA

RACING POST MONDAY JANUARY 16th 2012

RACING POST WEEK MONDAY JANUARY 16th TO SUNDAY JANUARY 22nd 2012

www.turfcall.co.uk 

TODAY'S CARDS Plumpton. Wolverhampton

http://www.racingpost.com/horses2/cards/home.sd

RODNEY MASTERS and JON LEES

"JOCKEYS TO DISCUSS WHIP ISSUES IN KEY MEETING WITH BHA

  "FEARS that the ongoing issue with the whip will dominate racing at the expense of more positive topics will be expressed at a meeting on Friday between the Professional Jockeys Association and BHA.

 

"The meeting was arranged three weeks ago but will be considered timely after the matter flared up again on Saturday when William Kennedy was banned for seven days and lost his prize-money percentage after winning the Lanzarote Hurdle at KemptonPark on SWINCOMBE FLAME. That came after seven jockeys received a combined 93 days suspension last Thursday.

"One new face at the table on Friday will be Paul Bittar, who joins the BHA 48 hours earlier as chief executive. Plenty for Paul Bittar to get on with then when he arrives, but then another snag, he is bloodhorse illiterate himself ... so that won't work very well either .... JMC









"Kevin Darley, outgoing chief executive of the PJA, will again lead the riders' case, but it was unclear last night as to who will join him, as previous joint-president Tony McCoy, present at previous meetings, is in Barbados.

 

"Steve Drown, the other joint-president, said last night: "It is worrying that all the good things going on in racing are being overshadowed by the whip issue."

"John Maxse, spokesman for the BHA, confirmed Bittar will attend, and added: "On Friday we'll be having our first sit-down meeting since the changes were introduced."

 

"No immediate changes to the rules are anticipated but the BHA will be conscious of Cheltenham and Aintree on the horizon.

"After Kennedy was banned for seven days and lost his share of the £25,000 winner's purse after striking SWINCOMBE FLAME ten times, two more than permitted, McCoy was among more than 100 people to tweet their support for Kennedy, but the rider has decided he will not appeal.

"A lot of people believe I was pretty hard done by, including me. Rules are rules but the loss of prize-money is what's hardest to take. A lot of people told me I gave the horse a fantastic ride and I think I gave the horse a fantastic ride too, but I've no intention of appealing.

 

"I spoke to (solicitor) Rory Mac Neice as I hit the horse ten times, which wouldn't normally lead to loss of prize-money, but one of my slaps landed short, which I got two days for, on top of five days for ten strokes, it took me to seven and loss of prize-money.

 

"I was angry because I had worked so hard on not breaking the rules for so long. If she had not lost her back legs landing at over the last I would have probably won by a length and maybe wouldn't have needed the whip.

 

"No one could say I wouldn't have won without giving her a slap. That must be one of the most clear-cut examples there have been but, unfortunately that type of ride is not allowed."

"SWINCOMBE FLAME had a nose to spare over FEATHERBED LANE, with the runner-up's rider, conditional Jamie Best, attracting comment over the time he took to change his whip. However, trainer Phipip Hobbs said: "I thought he rode the horse very well. His 7lb claim more than made up for him being very slightly slow pulling his stick through."


J MARGARET CLARKE TURFCALL COMMENT

IS PAUL BITTAR ....A FRONT MAN?  A DECOY MAN ?  OR A BRAVE MAN?

The Bloodhorse Illiterate British Horseracing Authority Regulation. 

Disciplinary.Licensing, all out of tune to the true reality of bloodhorse literacy.

This is not a question of just popping down to the local riding school for an 

hour or so once a week that perhaps Paul Roy may be contemplating.

 

Common sense proves that it is most definitely unacceptable for jockeys to carry on whipping horses in races, gives a bad impression and is unhealthy and a miserable spectacle that no one surely wishes to see. Especially when horses are tiring at the end of a gruelling jump race.

 

Where we are now over these key horsemanship issues, issues that have been ignored, standards left to deteriorate, been left to go from bad to worst caused in the main by bloodhorse illiterate regulation strangulation ongoing over decades of ignorance. We cannot go on letting the young ones down so badly to include the horses. This is a sport where the young ones if guided properly can bring this sport with them to a standard far beyond the general present standards. We are so lucky we have some of the very best senior horsemen any where in the world right now, right here in Britain. This country must not be allowed to go on ignoring the rights and the needs of the young ones to include the horses. Why is such a serious issue as this being ignored? Why?