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Congratulations to all Australian jockeys for launching a nation-wide strike, mid-way through Thursday’s race meetings, in protest of the new whip rules.
The horse racing industry has been steeped in controversy since the introduction of the rules on 1st August by the Australian Racing Board (ARB) in response to lobbying by animal welfare groups.
The amended rules state that only padded whips may be carried in races, as these softer whips do not inflict pain on the horse. Also, the whip must not be used more than five times before the 200 metre mark, and after that point, it’s not to be used in consecutive strides. Suspensions and forfeiture of prize money are the punishment for jockeys who break the rules.
So where do these new rules leave jockeys, trainers, owners and punters? And why are the jockeys striking?
Sydney trainer and former jockey, Kevin Moses, is of the opinion that if the new padded whips don’t hurt horses, then why do we need to limit the number of times a horse can be hit with these whips?
In the heat of a race, a jockey needs to focus on his safety, any riding instructions and race strategies from the trainer, while at the same time controlling a 500kg animal. Are we asking too much of these jockeys to then expect them to count how many times they’ve hit their mount with the whip, while trying to win a race?
Punters have also raised an additional question since the introduction of the rules. Will there be a risk that some jockeys will ignore the new rules in a tight finish and therefore gain an unfair advantage?
An example of this was in the last race at Randwick on 22nd August, when the winning jockey, Daniel Ganderton was suspended for six meetings and forfeited his prize money percentage of $3700, after he was found to have breached the whip rules on two occasions over the final 200 metres of the race on his mount Deer Valley. The jockey on the runner-up, Melito, abided by the new rules and was consequently beaten by a short half-head. Following the race, Ganderton admitted that Deer Valley was unlikely to have won the race, if he’d not whipped the horse as many times as he did.
All the punters who backed Melito in that race consequently lost their money because they were beaten by a horse and jockey that broke the rules of racing to win the race. Not a great advertisement for the racing industry.
For owners and trainers, racing horses all comes down to winning races. They want to win prize money and they want the value of their horses to increase for breeding purposes, which is achieved by winning races. So if that means the jockey has to break the rules to guarantee a win during a big race, then the value of the win will compensate the punishment for breaking the rules.
During a meeting on Thursday between the Australian Jockeys Association and the ARB, the jockeys requested that the rules be changed concerning the number of times they can whip a horse over the final 200 metres of a race. However, members of the ARB decided unanimously that the rules will not be reviewed until February 2010, which was the original review date when the rules were introduced. As a result, jockeys called a nation-wide strike.
With the damage caused by Equine Influenza finally in the past, can the racing industry survive another crisis so soon? As the multi-million dollar spring carnival fast approaches, we will wait with baited breath to see what happens next.
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