Why jockeys are quietly paying the price for racing's strict whip rules

The Front Runner, Chris Cook's popular daily email, was recently named the specialist/regional newsletter of the year at the Press Gazette's Future of Media Awards. Written principally by our award-winning senior reporter since its launch in 2021, it has become a beloved part of our Members' Club Ultimate package.

Here you can read a free sample of the award-winning newsletter, normally available exclusively for Members' Club Ultimate subscribers and written again today by Chris.

Subscribers can get more great insight, tips and racing chat from The Front Runner every Monday to Friday. Those who aren't yet signed up for The Front Runner should click here to sign up and start receiving emails immediately!

Not a Members' Club Ultimate subscriber? Click here to join today and also receive our Ultimate Daily emails plus our full range of fantastic website and newspaper content.

Oh God, the whip rules are back in the public eye, with a widespread expectation that the Cesarewitch winner is going to be disqualified when the Whip Review Committee (WRC) meets tomorrow. I always worry about how such things are being interpreted in the wider world; the general rule seems to be that anything whip-related gets fashioned into a stick with which the sport can be beaten.

I don't think whip-rule breaches have formed a large part of the narrative of this Flat season. But that doesn't mean that what happened on Saturday was a total aberration and that most jockeys have learned to love the new whip regime and can cheerfully live within it.

Whip-related suspensions are still being handed out like sweets at Halloween, with oppressive consequences for some jockeys. We're not even halfway through October but already this month the WRC has found 15 jockeys in breach and handed out 50 days in suspensions.

That's seven weeks' worth of someone being prevented from earning a living, accumulated in a quiet fortnight at the start of October. If that fortnight is typical of the year as a whole, over 300 individual breaches will be found in 2024 and suspensions totalling three or four years in length will be handed out.

That's the burden being borne by jockeys as a result of the new whip regime, and borne silently for the most part. They complained vociferously when plans were published, naturally enough, but I think they feel it's a difficult subject to approach now that the rules are in place.

Alphonse Le Grande: Cesarewitch winner could be disqualified on TuesdayCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

After all, no jockey wants to call attention to the fact they've been given a ban. So they don't tend to protest in public when it happens. And the new set-up helps minimise publicity because suspensions are announced several days after the race in question and they generally go unreported, except for the most high-profile riders.

It means that, unless you're following the game very closely, a typical racing fan could form the opinion that whip suspensions aren't much of a problem for jockeys these days. The opposite is true; those suspensions have never been so intrusive as they are now.

As well as all the WRC's bans, we're also seeing an increase in the number of totting-up bans handed out by racing's judicial panel and those can really mess up your season. Jockeys get referred to the panel if they break the rules four times in six months and, while they are given every chance to explain themselves and ask for mercy, the entry-point punishment is a 28-day suspension.

In 2022, the year before the new rules were introduced, there were just four totting-up bans (according to my rummage through the judicial panel's website, where verdicts are recorded). The year before that, there had been five.

Last year, the number soared to 17. That's 17 individual jockeys getting walloped with a suspension running into weeks. A third of the sentence typically gets deferred, to be triggered if the jockey reoffends within a certain timescale, but even if we confine ourselves to discussing time that had to be served, these jockeys got a total of 348 days, an average of 19 days each.

Three weeks is a very long time for a jockey to be barred, watching other people riding horses they had hoped to be on, perhaps winning on them and forming lasting attachments. It's the kind of setback that can have lasting consequences.

We're well on the way to a similar number of totting-up bans this year, with 12 already in the can, one more than had been reported at this stage last year. It looks as though number 13 is in the pipeline, a rider having been referred to the judicial panel by the WRC last week.

Bear in mind that a totting-up ban can be triggered by a rider using his whip just once more than is allowed by the rules, on four occasions within half a year. I find it easy to sympathise with a jockey in that situation, bearing in mind the pressure they're under to do everything they can to win, to impress trainers and owners and hopefully persuade those people to keep giving them work.

Whip bans: there was a significant increase in the number of totting-up bans handed out last yearCredit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

We might be talking about a very hard-working jockey who breaks the rules just once a month through the busy part of the Flat season. Once in May, once in June, once in July, once in August - that would do it. Those rides might be so well spaced apart that it would be hard to recall the last one when the next one arises. But taken collectively, they'd be enough to land this rider in hot water.

Even if the WRC and the judicial panel are always in an indulgent mood when this jockey comes before them, they're going to end up with a total of 16 days in suspensions for their four breaches (2+2+2+10). Surely this is out of kilter with the low-level nature of the offence?

Again, though, you'll barely hear of these bans being handed out. Mostly, they're dealt with under the fast-track system. In the past, there would always be a hearing if there was going to be a totting-up ban and I would usually be there to report on whatever happened.

Nowadays, the BHA will propose a penalty and if the jockey accepts it, there's no need for a hearing. The judicial panel ratifies the punishment, the details are posted on its website and the jockey quietly disappears for a bit.

Racing's rulers evidently feel they have to come down hard on whip offenders in order to please the outside world. But it doesn't feel a likely way to improve the sport's reputation and in reality I'd be surprised if any progress is being made in that direction.

In the meantime, lots of jockeys are being forced to the sidelines, sometimes for extended periods. We owe it to them to notice the fact and not get blase about the impact of our strict new rules.

Who Am I?

Today's clue:

"How many jockeys have managed to be champion apprentice in two countries? Well, I managed it, though it's the kind of achievement that tends to get forgotten, once your career starts to fill out with a certain amount of drama. I've had highs others could only dream of but fashion is still a thing. 'Let’s hope that winning some decent races helps to get him going again,' said a trainer about me, a fella for whom I won a couple of Group 1s. All you can do is ride your best and hope someone notices your quality."

It's the start of a new week in our 'Who Am I?' quiz, based around a different racing personality each week. We'll give you a new clue every day, with the answer revealed on Friday.

Think you know who it is? Email frontrunner@racingpost.com to say who. I'll give a mention to everyone who gets it right.

Congratulations to Michael Bailey, who has won our competition for the past two weeks. Generous was last week's mystery personality, a 50-1 winner of the Dewhurst some 34 years ago.

Three things to look out for today

1. Some jumps trainers have their horses in great shape at this early stage of the core season, others are aiming a little further down the road. Kim Bailey is in the "ready now" camp, with form figures since Tuesday of 311121, including handicap winners at 6-1 and 7-1. It's got to be worth looking out for his only runner at Hereford today, Von Hallers, who has her first outing since May in a handicap hurdle for mares (5.05). Her form figures are more letters than numbers but she's only had one try in a handicap and that ended badly when she made a mistake at an early fence. Smaller obstacles give her a chance to recover some confidence. She has an alternative entry at Market Rasen tomorrow.

Von Hallers17:05 Hereford

View Racecard

Jky: Tom Bellamy Tnr: Kim Bailey

2. Stuart Kittow has had a couple of mentions here lately, including last week when his Anna Of Saxony won at 13-2. His older horses have never been in such form, with nine wins from 27 runs since the start of September. Could today be the time to catch seven-year-old Gherkin? His last two wins have been on soft, including at Brighton in mid-October last year, and he's going to get that at Windsor for a sprint handicap today (5.25). He pulled too hard at Kempton early last month but his previous two runs had suggested his turn was near.

Gherkin17:25 Windsor

View Racecard

Jky: Hollie Doyle Tnr: Stuart Kittow

3. It's still a live race for the apprentice championship, Sean Dylan Bowen leading Joe Leavy by just two wins – though it'll be three if the Cesarewitch winner gets disqualified tomorrow because Bowen was on the runner-up. Anyway, both young men have six rides at Wolverhampton, so that card may well have a big bearing on the destiny of the title, which will be decided on Saturday at the latest. Bowen's rides include recent Newcastle winner Blue Force, while Beset (runner-up last time on handicap debut) looks Leavy's best chance. All nine races feature one or other of the title aspirants, which means they're only in the same race three times.

Blue Force16:25 Wolverhampton (A.W)

View Racecard

Jky: Sean D Bowen Tnr: Antony Brittain

Beset20:00 Wolverhampton (A.W)

View Racecard

Jky: Joe Leavy (3lb)Tnr: Henry Candy

Read these next:

What's on this week: BHA decides Cesarewitch result before the British Flat season goes out with a bang at Ascot 

An expensive Godolphin newcomer and top apprentice duo duke it out at Wolverhampton - punting pointers for Monday's action 

Slow start for Nicholls, Derham a trainer to follow and Menzies shows the way in Ireland - three things we learned this week 

The Front Runner is our unmissable email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, the reigning Racing Writer of the Year, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday. Not a Members' Club Ultimate subscriber? Click here to join today and also receive our Ultimate Daily emails plus our full range of fantastic website and newspaper content.