Education on whip-use rules

Two prominent signs – one in Spanish, another in English – will be on display in the Del Mar jockeys’ room this week in advance of the Breeders’ Cup programs on Friday and Saturday.

The signs, designed primarily to grab the attention of out-of-state and international riders, will detail the strict whip rules that jockeys riding in California must follow to avoid sanctions that can result in suspensions or four-figure fines.

On Friday and Saturday mornings, track stewards Grant Baker, Luis Jauregui, and Kim Sawyer and representatives of the Jockeys’ Guild plan to hold meetings with riders to review the rules.

Since October 2020, California jockeys have been limited to six underhand strikes in a race and are allowed two strikes before pausing to allow their mounts to respond. Whips can be used only on a horse’s hind quarters or shoulders, cannot cause a break in the skin, cannot be used in a motion that begins above the shoulder, and cannot be used when a horse is out of contention or reached a maximum placing.

Earlier this year, the California Horse Racing Board updated the penalty aspect of the rules, dictating that violations result in minimum fines of $500 and permitting even higher fines or three-day suspensions than the penalties put in place a year ago. The previous sanctions were a maximum fine of $1,000 and a possible three-day suspension.

Under the new rules, more significant penalties, such as higher fines, are allowed if riders have had recent similar infractions, the number of strikes significantly exceeds six, or if the whip is used in an overhand motion.

“Aggravating circumstances can increase the penalty,” Sawyer said last weekend.

The pre-race meetings, as well as the signs in the jockeys’ room, are designed to reduce the possibility that the stewards will spend the mornings following the Breeders’ Cup races holding hearings and issuing penalties for violations, according to Darrell Haire, the Jockeys’ Guild West Coast representative.

“I’ll try to go over it with them,” Haire said of the raceday meetings. “I’ll go over it with them as much as I can.

“We try to drill it home. This is the way it is in California.”

In the first 15 days of the 16-day Santa Anita autumn meeting that ended Sunday, there were six penalties against three riders for violations resulting in fines of $4,500. The riders were sanctioned for using the whip above the shoulder, more than six times, or when a horse was out of contention.

By comparison, in the first four months of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting earlier this year, there were 32 rulings against riders for whip violations, involving $17,750 in fines and seven three-day penalties.

One of the most severe penalties in the last year was issued in December to Quarter Horse jockey Eduardo Nicasio, who was fined $1,000 and suspended 10 racing days for using his whip more than six times, more than twice in succession, and in an overhand position when he finished third on Powerful Favorite in the $600,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos.

With 14 seven-figure races during the Breeders’ Cup series, there is a concern that some riders could make a mistake during the stretch of a valuable race.

“There may be hiccups,”

Sawyer said.

At one point earlier this year, the racing board considered a sanction that would penalize a jockey with a fine worth 50 percent of earnings for violations on mounts that finish in the top three in graded stakes.

The fine was deemed “a little harsh” by racing board chairman Greg Ferraro and was not enacted by the board.