'The sport is shooting itself in the foot' - Willie Mullins fumes over timing of whip changes

New whip rules in Britain are expected to come into force for jump racing next Monday and Willie Mullins thinks the timing of the rollout is ludicrous, stating the sport is shooting itself in the foot by highlighting the issue so close to the Cheltenham Festival.

According to data from the BHA's new three-person whip review committee, 43 rides would have fallen foul of the revised whip rules during the first week of the bedding-in period for jump jockeys.

Mullins believes that if changes are to be made to the whip rules it should happen during the summer, not in the lead-up to the most important week of the whole season.

The nine-time leading trainer at the festival with 88 winners is perplexed by the timing of the changes and compared it to changing the rules of a World Cup before the knockout stages.

Mullins said: "Why do they always bring these things out before Cheltenham? It should be done in the off season. It's the equivalent of bringing in new rules for the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the World Cup. They are highlighting the whole thing for the wrong reasons. It's a shooting yourself in the foot job."

He added: "This whole thing should be done in the off season like it would be done in any other sport. They should trial it somewhere at the start of a new season, not now.

"Whip rules are for my jockeys, that's their business, not the trainer. But when my horses start losing races because the jockeys have broken the whip rules, then it will become my business. What I cannot understand is why they are doing it now."

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