Wrong way to whip up a win

OUTSTANDING sport at the Cheltenham Festival, as usual – but one thing still jars.

On Tuesday, Ruby Walsh (below) and Patrick Mullins both won races in which they broke the rules.

Both hit their horses with excessive frequency. For Walsh, it means a two-day ban to be served at the end of the month (presumably irrelevant as he has suffered another horrible injury), while, in Mullins’ case, it is a six-day suspension.

But such is the prestige of winning a Festival race, it is worth the ban.

If the British Horseracing Authority is serious about stopping whip misuse, demoting a horse for a jockey’s offence is the only way to do it.