Richard Hughes Quits after second ban for whip offence

Racing has well and truly shot itself in the foot. Whoever at the BHA decided launching the new whip rules the week of Champions Day needs to be fired. All the focus should have been on the racing tomorrow and now it will be nothing but the whip.

Apparently The Telegraph were due to run a big piece today on CD with an article about Frankel and an interview with Sheikh Fahd. They pulled it for a whip article.

If I were Qipqo I'd be fuming right now.

Angry of Newmarket

 

Odddog, at a seminar last week we were told that the average jockey's take home pay is £11,000 per year. They'd get paid more stacking shelves in Tesco.

 

So 2 weeks without pay for someone who only earns 11k would have a massive affect on there life

 

Oddy - I do have massive sympathy with the jockeys. As I've said already the rules seem to have been poorly considered and hastily cobbled together. The comment re. Champions day was really aimed at the top earners and that should have been amde clear really so apologies for the ambiguity .

I just worry when ever people threaten to strike - all it does is up the ante, both sides become more entrenched and the fall out can last a long time and be very damaging. What's needed is measured discussion and the opportunity to clear the air. I just feel that Hughes has acted a bit hastily (all be it understandably) and now both sides need to seek an agreeable solution.

Zenyatta - I don't think the sport should blindly follow everything that the animal rights lobby says but it does need to be aware of oppostion and do what it can to tell them they're talking out of their arses. A stirke where jockeys are complaining about whiiping rules just gives them more ammunition.

 

Perhaps Nass.
That said, would it not be inconsiderate to the owners, stable staff and racegoers who have already made arrangements for todays racing - owners who (for the elite few) may be on the other side of the world and make special arrangements to travel back to see their horses run ? And the little man who with a bunch buddies take a day off work and enjoy some Autumn sun with a day at the races, these are the people who lose out if the action was immediate.
The same issues may exist for Monday (though likely less so) but time allows for changes to plans.

No-one wins here, BHA look weak, Hughes looks like a spoilt child and the industry is yet again silent/nowhere.
PN touched on it earlier but it seems the senior figures (Nicholls, AP) are being criticised for their stances now when a couple of weeks ago the message they were sending out was of support for the changes...

 

I am in total support of the jockeys withholding their services on Monday rather than at Saturday’s two big televised meetings. I do not think this is entirely because of the big prize money on offer but also because it allows the ‘ordinary’ working jockeys who participate on an ‘ordinary’ working day.

If they had disrupted tomorrow’s big televised meetings they would have got half an hour of TV coverage then the BBC and Channel 4 would have filled the schedule with a film and repeats of Come Dine With Me.

By protesting on Monday the issue itself will be the primary focus and should get fair media coverage (unless Fox, Letwin and Co. get fired or Greece defaults over the weekend).

Naturally it is very frustrating for the sport’s good image that the Telegraph has pulled what could only have been good publicity – Frankel – in favour of something that was effectively breaking news when they went to press.

How many jump jockeys are going to get done at Cheltenham tomorrow having to ride up the hill and count their whip strokes if they become involved in a driving finish?

Princess, you and I should move to Tunbridge Wells as that is the national home for our type! I agree that somebody at the BHA has to be held accountable for this debacle if they dare to put their head above the parapet.

 

With the ridiculous prize money on offer on champions day, it isn't only the big earners who will be eager to participate. Think about some of the lesser established jockeys who may be on a long shot, that could potentially come 3rd or 4th with abit of luck. There is still decent prize money there in races worth 1.3 and 1 million pounds.

I don't know the exact brake down of prize money, but to a jockey who is only earning say 20-30k a year, basically a working class guy, finishing 4th in the champion stakes would make a huge difference to there lives, so it's a little unfair to expect them to strike tommorow.

Oddog's post is spot on, stop thinking jockeys are on mega bucks, because they are not, the majority, even at big meetings like Ascot are working class, and Saturday is there chance to get a nice Xmas bonus

 

I would love to know how they came up with that average jockey statistic, if it includes all conditionals etc then there is no wonder that its that low, and I also wonder if they take into account prizemoney etc.

I don't believe the average jockey takes home 11,000 a year, not a chance.

 

Nass, the figure was given at a seminar I attended last week by Paul Dixon. I've searched to see if I can find where they got the figures from, but sadly without success.

What needs to be born in mind is that the vast majority of jockeys are, to all intents and purposes, self-employed. Out of their riding fee, regardless of whether they win or place in a race, they have to pay their tax, national insurance, valet fees and not to mention the ever-rising travel costs. Kevin Darley once said, at another seminar I attended 2 years ago, that a jockey with one ride on a given day (and assuming the ride is unplaced) will only take home about £30 of his riding fee (£109+VAT for a flat jockey and £148.95+VAT for a jump jockey).

The Guardian is now running a very good article on the matter: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2011/oct/14/claims-five-bha-whip-mistakes?CMP=twt_gu

 

The rule is stupid, because it achieves nothing.

The activists look at animals like people and you either beat a kid or you don´t beat a kid. So either get rid of the whip or tell them to shove it and focus on the poor Schnitzels, who would be happy, if they could be whipped in pig races.

 

This is what happens when the PC world take over (and I'm not talking about the people who sell computers). The British racing authorities have paid far too much heed to the morons and lunatics in recent years, and this is the end result. Tony McCoy and Paul Nicholls both said that they welcomed the new rules a few weeks ago when anyone with half a brain could see that they were unworkable. I found myself wondering whether the real Messrs Nicholls and McCoy had been replaced by BHA-sponsored doppelgangers in order to peddle such inane propaganda.

On a weekend with the appearance of Frankel at Ascot tommorow on the richest day's racing ever held in the UK, the racing headlines are being dominated by talk of a jockey's strike. It's absolutely comical! British racing is the laughing stock of the racing world. A big round of applause to all at the BHA and Racing For Change! Well done guys.

 

Oddy: Beige-ists? Scooze usual ignorance but wots dat?

(You eating those poor ducks this Sunday? Am under orders to go for Duck Sunday lunch (), but they can all bluddy well wait until I'm thru with the Rugby! ).

 

Oddy: Ah thanks, Billy Connolly was it! I like him, that's when I can understand him! Tks for clip! Have a good weekend and back all the winners, and good luck with the Owls. Dread to think about how the R's are going to do, every damn game is really hairy!

 

I think most people felt sick watching the national winner being whipped like hell. That should never happen again.
There is a bit of confusion over the new rules as straightening a horse counts as a use of a whip. Of course if allowed to use the whip to straighten a horse, jockeys would use the whip and say they were just straightening their horse.
The obvious answer to me is to increase the number of times a jockey can use the whip and to produce a whip that does little harm to the horse.

 

We have that already. The whip is already cushioned, as Princess' post above shows.