11 Jan 2023
New regulations are being introduced in the coming weeks, but welfare organisations are unhappy that a key measure was changed following opposition from jockeys.
Allister Webb
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Image © Gabriel Cassan / Adobe Stock
A last-minute change to new whip usage rules in UK horse racing has been branded “shameful” by a veterinary group.
Welfare organisations have also criticised the move, claiming it undermined the review process that proposed them in the first place.
But the sport’s regulator, the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), insisted all the other changes proposed through the review published last summer will still be implemented.
Several senior jockeys had spoken out against a planned requirement for them to use the whip in a backhand position, from where it is thought to be more difficult to strike a horse with excessive force, in recent weeks.
That measure has now been dropped, with the permitted number of strikes being reduced by one to six in flat races and seven in National Hunt contests.
Penalties, including disqualification for the most serious breaches, will be implemented from early February in the National Hunt code and late March on the flat, following bedding in periods.
BHA officials argued they were “duty bound” to consider the jockeys’ views, despite expressing frustration at their late intervention in the debate.
But the Progressive Veterinary Association said it “considers shameful and unacceptable the position of the BHA to continue to allow jockeys to beat horses with forehand strikes of the whip in the name of entertainment for an ever-declining sector of the population”.
Newly reported figures suggest UK racecourse attendances may fall below five million for the first time in 25 years, excluding the impact of COVID-19, once final 2022 data is collated.
The BVA has also reiterated its unease about the implementation, which it initially set out in a response to the consultation process published in September 2021.
President Malcolm Morley said: “When it comes to the use of animals in sport, ensuring the highest standards of welfare is of paramount importance.
“While we accept the need to carry a whip for the purpose of protecting the safety of horse, jockey, other competitors and spectators, BVA does not support their use for encouragement in racing.”
World Horse Welfare chief executive Roly Owers, a member of the review panel, said he was dismayed by an announcement he views as “a significant step backwards”.
He added: “For changes to be made at the eleventh hour like this is deeply unfortunate, not least because it lacks transparency and, therefore, erodes trust.”
Dene Stansell, horse racing consultant for Animal Aid, claimed the move had left the review process “in tatters”.
But BHA board chairperson Joe Saumarez Smith insisted the new measures were consistent with the aim of making whip use “visibly more palatable to the public”.
