BROWNIE'S BLOG: EXPECTING A RUSH OF WHIP RULE PROTESTS FROM JOCKEYS? I DON'T THINK SO!

By Damian Browne | Monday, March 21, 2016

Damian Browne, reigning Queensland's Jockey Of The Year, is rated right up there with the best jockeys in Australia and, as such, his highly informed views make essential reading for anyone in the racing industry. Damian’s column, ‘Brownies Blog’ appears exclusively on HRO

I’ve been asked many times about it, but there really is not too much I can add on the whip issue.

There are simply too many grey areas to satisfy everybody on the rule as it stands at the moment.

Contrary to some of the popular opinion voiced straight after a whip protest was upheld at the Sunshine Coast last week, I don’t think that result has had any significant effect on the jockey’s mindset in terms of putting in a whip protest.

Obviously with that objection being upheld it will be on some people’s minds, but the thing is we (jockeys) can’t see the opposition to be able to tell how many times any particular rider has hit their horse.

We don’t know whether anybody has breached the rule or not, so it’s just a matter of the connections, or somebody, being able to tell us what has happened.

Then you still have to weigh up how far you got beat and those sort of things ... and there is a time limit in which you have to make a decision.

Also, as has been well documented, there is nothing in concrete to say that, for example, each whip strike is worth a neck margin, or whatever.

There can’t because the effect of the whip is impossible to measure.

So, no, I don’t think there is going to be a run of whip protests from jockeys.

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Some people want to right to protest against excessive whip use taken out of the rule book.

That could create as many problems as it solves.

The most simple argument against that is, as I’ve said before, it is obviously unfair if you get beaten by a horse and rider who has broken the rules to beat you.

As a beaten runner, that is a hard pill to swallow without the protest option.

The greater argument against taking away the protest option is, what message are you sending to the riders?

You can just imagine what might happen in a big race?

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On the other side of the story, some believe that the only way the rule can be effective is to take the stance that if you break the rule, you are out.

Nothing to do with margins, just a straight call on the excessive number of whip strikes.

In truth, I don’t think that interpretation would hurt me much because I’m not a great user of the whip. It will probably even suit me because I am one of the least likely to fall foul of the rule but, again, wouldn’t that unfairly penalise punters, owners and trainers because of rider-error.

Although if you do start disqualifying horses it will be interesting to see how quickly riders learn to count to five.

But, seriously, that is also not really a satisfactory option.

It is a hard one. I don’t know what the right answer is.

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Some readers have spotted that I have not been as active in terms of race rides as I could have been at recent meetings.

They have speculated that my upcoming trip to Dubai to ride Buffering in the Al Quoz Sprint on World Cup night might have something to do with that.

They are quite right.

In recent weeks I have been very careful about how many rides I have taken and which rides I have taken because I didn’t want to add to any risk of suspension.

Up until last Wednesday, if I’d been suspended and got, say, eight meetings, I would have still been clear in time to ride in Dubai but I would have gone in without having ridden in the last eight days ... which is not ideal going into a big race.

You wouldn’t want to do that.

Any suspension after last Wednesday and I would still be able to ride in Dubai on a nine day stay of proceedings. So last Wednesday was a critical day in that regard. It would have been the worst day to be suspended. That’s why I only took one ride.

So, as some thought, there was an extra factor in play concerning my riding schedule.

I was just being careful.

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I leave for Dubai on Wednesday, get there Thursday morning. I leave Dubai on Monday, get back on Tuesday.

What happens in-between ... well, I’ll be able tell you all about that in my next blog.

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