Advertisement

Talking Horses: Champion-elect Brian Hughes has riding ban suspended

<span>Photograph: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images</span>
Photograph: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images

The three-day ban handed to Brian Hughes this week has been suspended and it appears unlikely that the title-race leader will have to serve it after all. Hughes was punished by the stewards at Carlisle after weighing in 5lb light but protested at the time that he had done nothing wrong to earn a ban that would undermine his chance of becoming champion jockey for the first time.

A statement from the British Horseracing Authority on Friday said the punishments issued “have been temporarily stayed pending further investigation into the exact cause of the underweight”. Officials declined further comment on the unusual step.

Related: Horse Welfare Board comments set to usher in stronger whip penalties

Their intervention was welcomed by Paul Struthers, chief executive of the Professional Jockeys Association, who had submitted an appeal on Hughes’s behalf within two hours of the race on Monday evening. “In our view, its clearly not a strict liability rule and the evidence in this case supports the conclusion that Brian was not at fault and should not be sanctioned,” Struthers said. “We will await the outcome of the BHA investigation.”

Hughes rode his 130th winner of the season at Newcastle on Friday and is rated a 1-7 shot on Betfair to become champion when the season ends in April. But his rival, Richard Johnson, hopes to be back in action within the next fortnight after breaking his arm in January and told the Racing Post this week that he still feels he has a chance.

“If I was more than 30 winners behind I’d feel the title was gone,” said Johnson. “I’m not saying I can still beat Brian but if he got a suspension, or missed a week for whatever reason, all of a sudden it gets a lot closer.”

Gordon Elliott endured a mixed Friday, as he had to break the news that Glenloe will miss next month’s Cheltenham Festival, having suffered an unspecified setback. The horse had been favourite for the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Handicap Chase. However, Elliott was evidently happier with Tiger Roll, who made a flying trip to Cheltenham for a school over the cross-country fences.

Is it time for racing to call the whip by another name?

A serious, substantial piece of work is the strategic plan published on Thursday by the newly created Horse Welfare Board. It is full of interesting and original thoughts, reflecting on racing’s relationhip with its horses and can be downloaded here.

At one point, under the heading “The importance of language”, the Board muses: “We may inadvertently be using language or phrases ... which reinforce the impression of an underlying welfare ‘problem’. For example, it is common for people in the sport to say of a horse before a race, ‘I just hope he comes home safe.’ While this is undoubtedly an expression of how much that horse matters to the person in question, does it reinforce the perception of a high risk to horses when racing, when in fact it is fare more likely that the horse will return safely?”

Stiff upper lip for the good of racing, appears to be the message. Well, this is England. But it’s an interesting idea, that the casual use of language by fans and insiders can harm racing’s cause. Another example of this, I suggest, is the constant reference to “the whip”.

The broader public with no investment in the sport is naturally bound to be, at the very least, suspicious of the idea of animals being hit with something called a whip. The sport insists the item has been remodelled so as to avoid hurting the horse, so that it is merely a method of communicating urgency; in that case, why not refer to it as ‘the Procush’, the only make which is permitted under the rules of British racing?

Racing would be accused of being evasive, but such a change would be valid. As much as I enjoy old racing footage, the implements jockeys used to wield in the 70s look scary to modern eyes and the way they were used could be called aggressive in some cases. Those were whips. The modern item and its use are easily different enough to warrant a different label, underlining the changes made, and it ought to have the gradual effect, over time, of calling racing’s efforts in this area to the attention of agnostics - and, importantly, policy-makers.

I’m hardly the first to make the point. M’colleage Dave Yates at the Mirror has been hot on it for some time, so I’m surprised it doesn’t seem to have been debated by the HWB, but there is still time.

Another idea that hasn’t yet grabbed the HWB is extending whip punishments to include the trainer and the owner who employed the jockey that broke the rules. As I’ve said before, heaping more punishment on the jockeys is neither sophisticated nor fair. Drag their employers into the soup and you can hope that each jockey will be instructed: “Win if you can but for God’s sake don’t break the whip rules”. If you’re serious about seeking culture change, that’s how to make it happen.

Cheltenham Festival stat of the day, by Paul Ferguson

The record of four-year-olds in the Weatherbys Champion Bumper stands at just one winner from 80 runners since 1996. That winner was Cue Card, who would go on to prove himself at the top level for many seasons, whilst the previous four-year-old winner was the high-class hurdler Dato Star. This shows the kind of calibre of horse required to defy this statistic, and Panic Attack is prominent in the betting this year for the age group.

The Weatherbys Cheltenham Festival Betting Guide 2020, written by Paul Ferguson, is published this week and available through this link for £15.95.

A Cheltenham Festival stat of the day will appear here from Monday to Friday for the next three weeks.

Newcastle
12.30 Ginflix 1.00 Snookered 1.35 On The Blind Side 2.07 Siannes Star 2.40 Tupelo Mississipi 3.10 Trapper Peak 3.43 Dark Lochnagar

Warwick
1.25 Lieutenant Rocco 2.00 Grand Roi 2.30 Little Ginge 3.00 Deja Vue 3.35 Sissinghurst 4.10 Midnight Tune 4.40 Cloudy Glen (nb) 5.10 La Reine Poutine

Lingfield
1.50 Brooklyn Boy 2.25 Agreed 2.55 Halfacrown 3.30 Fuente 4.00 Chocco Star 4.30 Equipped 5.00 Autumn Trail

Exeter
2.15 Springfield Fox (nap) 2.47 Danny Kirwan 3.20 Ashfield Paddy 3.50 Lisa De Vassy 4.20 Ice Cool Champs 4.50 Martha Brae 5.20 Mocacreme Has

Wolverhampton
5.15 Double Reflection 5.45 Pilot Wings 6.15 Steelriver 6.45 Lady Sansa 7.15 Never Alone 7.45 Al Daiha 8.15 Watheer