Right: racehorses thunder toward the finishing post: jockeys claim that they do not have time to count strokes of the whip while trying to win a race.Further implications
The new regulations governing the use of the whip in horseracing will be reviewed in February, 2010. Whipping race horses has not excited the sort of controversy that has surrounded the deaths and injuries to horses involved in jumps racing. That said, the RSPCA has made it quite clear that it is not satisfied with the amendments that were made to the new regulations in the name of placating the jockeys. These amendments effectively limit jockeys to applying the whip a maximum of 18 times during the course of a race. Five times prior to the last hundred metres and then thirteen times thereafter.The RSPCA has indicated that it has concerns that the new regulations will not be properly policed. The Society has indicated that it will try to prosecute any jockey who applies his whip to a horse more than 18 times in a race.
Dr Hugh Wirth, president of the RSPCA in Victoria, has stated that stewards will have to police the new rule, counting the number of times a jockey whips his or her horse in every single race.
Dr Wirth has further stated, 'If it comes to the point that the Australian Racing Board attitude does not have supremacy, then it's time, I fervently believe, that the RSPCA takes a test case to the magistrate's court and insists that Section 9 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act is in fact in force against some errant jockey.
If any person, myself included, went outside right now and whipped our horse or some other horse, we would be prosecuted under the act.
It's only by tradition that it's been left in the hands of the racing stewards to police the law, and they've done a very poor job.'
If the RSPCA were to successfully prosecute a jockey for failing to abide by the new regulations, that would place racing stewards under a great deal of pressure to effectively implement the new ruling.
Under the new ruling, the owner of a horse that loses to another horse ridden by a jockey who has used the whip excessively can lodge a protest. Were this to occur at all regularly, it would become a further incentive to racing stewards fully and thoroughly to implement the new regulations.
As part of the February 2010 review of the new regulations, there may well be a recommendation that any horse whose jockey over-uses the whip forfeit any place it gains in a race. There are already commentators arguing that such an amendment is all that will ensure that owners and trainers do not attempt to abuse the new regulations.