Whip free racing put on hold in Victoria

Wednesday 16 December 2020, 2:40pm

Racing Victoria has decided not to pursue whip free racing in the foreseeable future.

After an RV board meeting on Tuesday night, the industry body released a statement confirming they would not conduct any 'whip for safety only' race trials in the near future.

RV has publicly outlined its belief that the current national whip rules are no longer appropriate.

An RV spokesman said they believed whip reform was essential if racing was to retain its existing audiences and, importantly, ensure that it was attractive for the fans of tomorrow.

RV stated that it would always support whips being carried by jockeys on safety grounds and that the industry's immediate priority would be to reduce its maximum permitted usage to between five and eight times per race, in line with many other leading international jurisdictions.

Officials formally tabled RV's position at last month's Racing Australia (RA) board meeting, where it also reaffirmed that it is a willing and active participant in the review of the national whip rules being undertaken by RA's Riding Advisory Protocols Panel.

It is RV's hope and expectation that the RA review will be well advanced within the first quarter of next year and that meaningful progress can be realised.

In the meantime, RV will continue to engage with industry stakeholder groups and racing customers in relation to whip reform, including exploring ways to obtain insights into the potential impact of RV's recommended reduction in whip use.

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »