Horse racing should run a big meeting that is 'whip-free'

There is one nettle which 'Racing For Change,' the modernisers charged with transforming horse racing, will have to grasp when they pluck up the courage to face up to an industry which cannot see the wood for the trees over one very emotive issue: jockeys beating their horses with sticks.

Horse racing should run a big meeting that is 'whip-free'
Change of image: the whips are up in a close finish at Newbury. Has the time come for jockeys to dispense with their sticks? Credit: Photo: PA

There is really very little point in trying to widen the base of racing enthusiasts if they are immediately confronted with behaviour that would have them ringing the RSPCA if they saw it happening in the street. No focus group will ever come up with the conclusion that virgin racegoers ‘ just love it when they start whipping those horses.’ The modernisers must know this, so why don’t they pluck up the courage to tell the horse racing industry to grow up?

It matters not that the whips that jockeys now use have been modified to the point that they could hardly squash a fly. It’s the visual impact of jockeys hitting horses that is such a turn off to a potential audience.

The well worn argument that jockeys must be allowed to use sticks, as they currently do to keep horses straight, was well and truly exploded by Richard Hughes on Channel 4’s The Morning Line on Saturday morning. Hughes had been unseated from Kojak at Ascot last week, when the two-year-old swerved violently to the left. Hughes expressed the opinion that the horse probably behaved erratically because he hit it. So much for whips keeping horses straight.

The whip has already caused more problems than it has solved at the highest level this season. In the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket, jockey Tom Queally used his stick on Jacqueline Quest. His filly duly veered away from it – as you would do if someone was slapping you – and she crossed the path of the subsequent runner-up. The result had to be overturned in the stewards’ room, which is not where one wants to see races decided.

There are already occasional races run where use of the whip is not permitted. They have been confined to inexperienced jockeys who tend to flap about too much when they are flailing their whips anyway. But the time has come to have an entire, high profile meeting that is ‘whip free.’ It would hardly be a radical step in an era where the industry is meant to be evolving itself.

The arguments for a new approach have been eloquently made by the most knowledgeable of commentators, Sir Peter O’Sullevan, and the most publicly recognised, John McCririck. Neither, to my knowledge, has ever ridden a racehorse. But that really is irrelevant. They know more about perception than a room full of champion jockeys.

The weighing room diehards will argue that not being allowed to wield sticks in a race amounts to unwanted change for the sake of pandering to outsiders. But they are wrong. It is improvement, rather than change. And it will contribute to the financial success of the sport, thus ensuring that it does not have to change.

As if on queue, Hughes gave us a dazzling display of coolness and judgement, winning the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury in extraordinary style on Paco Boy. Giving his horse a whack round the backside was the furthest thing from Hughes’ mind. Did that ruin the spectacle for you?