RACING WHIP CONTROVERSY:SOME OF Ireland's top National Hunt jockeys could be looking at a winter of discontent, with Ruby Walsh deciding to cut back on riding in Britain on the back of his whip suspension at Aintree on Saturday.
Walsh picked up a five-day suspension under the controversial amended BHA whip rules when winning on Edgardo Sol at Liverpool, a ride that was defended by his compatriot Barry Geraghty yesterday.
Like Walsh’s link with Paul Nicholls, Geraghty regularly rides in Britain, principally for Nicky Henderson, and the former champion jockey was quick to defend his colleague and is unhappy with the regulations now in place across the Irish Sea.
“I thought Ruby gave his horse a brilliant ride. He stopped using the whip with about 100 yards to go and gave him one more smack and it was the difference between winning and losing,” Geraghty said yesterday.
“It was a brilliant ride and to get suspended for that is flying in the face of what we are trying to do,” he added.
After picking up his ban on Saturday, Walsh vehemently defended his ride and said he would have to consider cutting back on his visits to Britain as the risk of picking up suspensions could impact on his job as number one rider to Willie Mullins in Ireland. And yesterday Walsh revealed he will miss out on two meetings in Britain this week, at Chepstow on Tuesday and Wetherby on Friday. He will also consider missing out on Wetherby’s Charlie Hall Chase fixture on Saturday.
“I’ll have a look at the declarations for the Charlie Hall before deciding whether to go for that or not,” Walsh said yesterday. “I’m facing a 10-day suspension the next time I offend. Ten days is what I’m looking at so every ride I take in the UK from now on has to be seriously calculated. It has to be worth the risk.”
He added: “In the UK for the prize-money that’s there, it’s not worth the risk. I’ve got too many commitments to Willie Mullins and Paul Nicholls to be doing that. The rules are well regulated here in Ireland. They are discretionary and common sense is used. I think that is the bit that is missing in England. Common sense seems to have gone out the window.”
Walsh and Geraghty are the most high-profile Irish-based jockeys who routinely commute to Britain to ride but others such as Paul Carberry put in regular appearances across the Irish Sea.
There remain deep divisions among jockeys in Britain about how to approach the current impasse with the BHA but the Professional Jockeys Association chief executive Kevin Darley has forecast there could be even more disruption during the winter when National Hunt races in testing ground will come increasingly under the microscope.
Yesterday Darley said the current rules are simply not working.
“Jockeys are still getting banned, left, right and centre. I just don’t think these rules are working. These guys (jockeys) are professional sportsmen – the best in the world – but they’re still going one or two over the limit and we need to come up with a suitable number,” he said.
“The punishments are taking the competitiveness away from the jockeys. They’re not acting as a deterrent and we need to look at the rule again,” Darley added. “We’ve got to look at what is happening now. Jockeys are going one or two strikes over and breaches are going to double the way things are going.”
Top trainer and BHA board member Mark Johnston defended use of the whip yesterday and said horse welfare should be the priority over public perception.
“It is an essential tool for the job, particularly in racing to initiate the right response and make these horses run. I also feel very strongly that it is a welfare issue, but not a welfare problem. Welfare should be put a long way ahead of public perception,” he said.
