Racing: Six months later, Australians are flogging a dead horse with whip rules

Six months of operation has done little to make you believe the new Australian whip rules are anything but crazy.

If you need an example, since September when the new rules were applied, there have been 60 suspensions for breaches of the whip restriction rules in New South Wales. Victoria has not had one.

No one believes Melbourne jockeys have got their heads around the rule and Sydney jockeys haven't.

It's simply interpretation and application.

To be fair, Victorian racing has suspended a couple of jockeys, both of whom have won their case on appeal.

In each of those cases the judge was extremely critical that racing had mandatory rules with no opportunity of discretion by racing stewards.

The Australian rules are simply unworkable.

And the reason is money.

Take the A$1 million Australian Cup two and a half weeks ago.

Winner Zipping was struck by Nicholas Hall 10 times with the whip outside the final 100m at Flemington, twice the allowable limit under the new rule.

The result was a A$1000 fine - that's not much of a dent for the owner to come up with from the A$605,000 winner's cheque.

The rider of the Bart Cummings-trained runner up Sirmione - beaten a nose - Luke Nolen stuck to the rules and left the course thinking he's the biggest bunny in horse racing.

Where's Nolen's incentive?

Sirmione's backers would have felt the same way.

Do you think for one second a rider is going to stick to the allotted number of whip strikes at the 150m if their horse is being beaten a nose in Saturday's A$3.5 million Golden Slipper?

Gee, let me think.

Imagine a jockey coming back in and saying: "I probably could have got you that couple of million dollars, but I was worried about the A$1000 fine."

You're kidding.

The Australians went from open slather with the whip, when we had restrictions, to padded whips, which instantly fixed the problem on their own. Then, ridiculously, imposed restrictions on top of it.

Restrictions that will never work.

Animal activists, more than half the problem, can hang their heads in shame.

In New Zealand, if a jockey uses the whip for six consecutive strides outside the final 200m they must not use it for six strides before resuming.

Inside the final 200m, provided a horse is in contention and not dropping away, there is no restriction provided the whip is used in a manner stewards do not deem to be excessive.

There is now no discretion in Australia.

"We have the best whip rules in the world," says New Zealand's chief stipendiary steward Cameron George, recently back after 14 months as steward for Victorian harness racing.

"It satisfies animal welfare and allows a rider to perform competitively to provide the best result for punters."

George said Victorian harness a few years ago introduced a rule that required drivers to use the whip no more than 10 times in the home straight.

"More recently, every state in Australia required drivers to keep holding the rein in the hand they were using to apply the whip.

"Because the drivers in Victoria were already used to whip restrictions, they adjusted much quicker than drivers in the other states, who had a lot of problems."

Sky Racing 2, which launched in Australia yesterday, is strictly for the addict.

It is taking races from everywhere - for example every race run in New

Zealand will now be broadcast - while the standard Sky Channel will restrict itself to the mainstream meetings.

Almost identical to the system New Zealand recently introduced, except Sky 2 is literally wall-to-wall races.

From 9.05am on Saturday, when Sky 2 takes the first race from New Zealand, through to midnight, 297 races will be shown.

You wouldn't want to be having a bad day on the punt.