Crop Use Control – We Dont Have To Do It This Way!

The R25,000 fine of R25,000 for jockey Richard Fourie, the winner of the WSB Cape Town Met, for exceeding the crop use limit with a strike has reignited a lot of debate about what an ongoing hot topic is!

It’s time for lawmakers at the NHRA to admit they botched their apparently well-intentioned plant-use laws.

So Tony Mincione of Knysna, writing in the Sporting Post Mailbag, suggests that at first you can’t have your cake and eat it.

That means you can’t specify the composition of a riding crop as being animal-friendly and argue that it’s meant to make the device painless, and then count the lashes of the same device.

Greg Wood of The Guardian (UK) interviewed winning Class 1 jockey Jim Crowley. “He smacked my palm three times in quick succession yesterday afternoon, the third time ‘as hard as I’ve ever slapped a horse’ and thanks to the construction of his lightweight, foam-padded whip I hardly felt anything.”

Read this story here for background information.

Jockey Bernard Fayd’herbe conceded a R40,000 fine at the King’s Plate on Al Muthana when he drove down the outside track to catch 2/10 favorite Charles Dickens.

The Stipes report reads:

Jockey B. Fayd’Herbe was charged with breaking rule 58.10.2 (to be read with Guideline M on use of whip) by abusing his whip by hitting AL MUTHANA (AUS) more than 12 times throughout the race . Jockey B. Fayd’Herbe signed a guilty plea and was fined R40000.00. In determining the penalty, the Board took into account the distance and manner in which Jockey B Fayd’Herbe used his crop, the number of strokes (16) and the value and status of that race.

Watch the replay here:

The NHRA are the sport’s umpires and, as professionals, are paid to judge other professionals.

I can, of course, sit in judgment on them free of charge.

How I would rule: If I owned Al Muthana, I would publicly pay Fayd’herbe’s fine with a thank you note. I would admit that with victory at hand, could he have changed just one thing in these dying courts?

If the senior jockey slacked off in any way, the gelding could have taken that as a signal that the race was over. The winning margin was 0.30 lengths. What is that, 70cm?

Then fast to another Summer Gr1 highlight, the WSB Cape Town Met.

The NHRA reported:

In an inquest conducted in Cape Town on February 9, 2023, Jockey R. Fourie was charged with breaking rule 58.10.2 in conjunction with Guideline M on the use of the crop. The details are that while riding JET DARK at the World Sports Betting Cape Town Met (Grade 1) at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth Racecourse on January 28, 2023, he abused his crop by hitting that horse more than 12 times in the entire race.

Jockey Fourie pleaded guilty and was found guilty of the charge. In determining an appropriate penalty, the Stewards took into account the value and status of the race, the distance covered and how Jockey Fourie used his whip, the number of strikes above the legal level (1) and Jockey Fourie’s most recent record in relation for violations of this rule and policy. A fine of R25,000.00 (twenty-five thousand rand) was imposed. Jockey Fourie was given the right to appeal the penalty imposed.

Watch the replay here:

This time the winning margin was 0.20 lengths. This time it was an extra swipe of the air whip.

Those two events alone prove with certainty that the rule is ridiculous on the face of it and that enforcing it is a lousy requirement for the NHRA. It is obvious that they are enforcing a rule and falling into the trap of making the punishment “reasonable”. It’s a bad rule that forces bad decisions.

When a jockey is accused of “not trying hard enough,” no one counts the lashes and suggests, “You only whipped the horse 9 times, it’s clear you didn’t ride the horse.”

If the Stipes are able to apply their judgment when a jockey has not done their best, then surely those same officers can apply the same common sense when it comes to whether a jockey has ‘abused’ an animal.

To further protect the horse, there are the owners, the trainers, every TV stable and, for that matter, the public at large.

Our jockeys are chirping quickly. A bunch of them took the stick to perpetrators in their own ranks. Others have made it their mission to scratch the start themselves.

Whatever you may think about these things, they don’t cover much or otherwise cover up pretty badly. By and large, we would learn about horse abuse from the inside soon enough. Similar to dangerous riding.

In our country, we are watching public companies fail one by one from bureaucracy, lack of initiative, apathy and incompetence, if not corruption. We don’t have to do it like this.

In fact, this is a more than usual unfair rule. All responsibility rests with the jockey, while the outcome affects many.

In a moment when a jock doesn’t know if he’s at 10 or 12 strikes, in a high-stakes moment – a moment that is crucial for the owner, the breeder, the trainer and who knows how many bettors that Can change lives – is that when we decide to guess the guy (or girl) on the hotseat? It’s embarrassing.

Maybe the fine should be a percentage of the total check, and then let’s see if we all think that’s a good idea! We don’t have to do it like this.