Jamie Moore wins appeal against whip ban as BHA fails to prove 'double-tapping'

Jamie Moore has won an appeal against a seven-day ban for overuse of the whip, having made a passionate defence of his technique and overall record before an appeals panel on Monday.

The BHA argued he was guilty of "double-tapping", using the whip twice in quick succession, when winning on Shut The Box at Fontwell recently, but an appeals panel ruled it was not clear from footage that Moore had gone over the limit of eight uses.

Moore assured the BHA's Charlotte Davison, in response to her questions, that he was fully supportive of the whip rules and efforts to control whip use. "I've never appealed a stick ban before," the 36-year-old jockey said.

"I'm 100 per cent with you guys and what you're trying to do with the whip rules. Whenever I've been done for the stick, I've gone in there and held my hands up.

"This time, when they said I'd used it 14 times, it genuinely upset me because I wouldn't do that. I didn't do that."

Moore went so far as to say he had been "appalled", "disgusted" and "embarrassed" at himself when he used the whip 11 times at Wetherby last month, and explained that he had been under particular pressure at that time.

"A few things had gone wrong and Josh [Moore's brother] had got injured. Things weren't going quite right.

Jamie Moore (left): 'The biggest rollocking I got was off my dad [Gary, right]'Credit: Mark Cranham

"It was an expensive horse that had to win. I just miscounted. I held my hands up. The biggest rollocking I got was off my dad [Gary, trainer of the horse] because I shouldn't have done it.

"Since that day, I thought I'd turned the corner. I thought, you've got to keep yourself together a bit and ride to the best of your ability and not go over."

Replays of the race from various angles were repeatedly shown to the panel, Davison pausing them to show the 14 moments at which the BHA believed Moore's whip had made contact.

However, the cameras in question were often remote from the action and sight of Moore's whip hand was sometimes obscured by other jockeys.

Discussion centred on Moore's two-wave whip action, with the first wave not making contact, according to the jockey, but serving to "tee up" the second and helping to ensure the whip landed in the right place on the horse's rear.

Davison maintained the first wave was also making contact, albeit with less force. She did not quarrel with Moore's assertion that he had not intended the first wave to make contact but said: "Lack of intent is not the issue."

She said Moore had told the Fontwell stewards: "I've never been aware of double-tapping and I'm too old to start doing it now. I'm not meaning to make contact, I'm just teeing it up. I know I'm a physical rider but I'm not double-tapping."

Moore said he had ridden on this occasion just as he always had, adding that he prided himself on never hitting a horse in the wrong place, to which end the initial wave of the whip was a help.

"It's just like a snooker player or a golfer would line up his shot, that's all I'm doing."

'We do not feel there is conclusive evidence'

A panel chaired by Brian Barker QC ruled that Moore was not in breach for the Fontwell ride.

"We've thought about it very carefully and I'm afraid our view is that this case stands or falls on what we make of the footage," Barker said.

Watch Shut The Box win at Fontwell

"We do not feel there is conclusive evidence that the first strike in these pairs did in fact make contact. It may have been very close, almost impossible to say, but the burden is on the BHA to establish facts to our satisfaction to the appropriate level of proof.

"He accepts eight strikes, there clearly are eight. In our view, we haven't been supplied with evidence that we can rely on that there were in fact more."

The Fontwell stewards did not specify dates on which the suspension would run but it is likely to have applied from this Saturday.

Moore has therefore freed himself to take part in one or other of Saturday's valuable cards at Ascot and Haydock.

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