CHRB Rule to Have Tracks Supply All Whips Hits Practical Snag

Whip rule changes that would have barred jockeys and exercise riders from choosing, carrying and using their own personal riding crops in races and workouts hit several snags on Wednesday, leading the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) to postpone voting on the measure in an effort to seek more input and fine-tune the rule's language before potentially bringing it back for reconsideration in February.

Although the broad intent of proposed amendments to CHRB Rule 1685 was to codify riding crop specifications to more humane and safety-centric standards, discussion of the proposal at the CHRB's monthly meeting in Sacramento quickly yielded a spate of practical limitations. Most were related to the directive that racetracks would have to supply and control all whips, and that they would need to be handed out, logged, then collected from jockeys before and after every race.

In addition, since jockeys would no longer be allowed to possess their own whips, it was speculated that trainers would have to supply them to anyone getting on horseback in the morning who wanted to carry one for purposes of control.

The rule amendments were initially crafted to incorporate the specifications for the 360 Gentle Touch riding crop, which is the design manufactured by retired Hall-of-Fame jockey Ramon Dominguez.

The 360 GT has no stitching and a popper made of foam that is designed to decrease welts and cutting while producing a louder audible sound that purportedly startles horses into running faster. This type of modified whip allegedly does not cause as much physical damage as the traditional (short-popper and leather-fringed) whips that are being phased out of the sport worldwide.

But three representatives of the Jockeys' Guild who spoke out against the rule change on Wednesday repeatedly underscored that a “one-size-fits-all” mentality would not work, and was, in fact, dangerous to both horse and rider.

Among the concerns cited were that jockeys have different physical frames, grip preferences, and stiffness/flexibility needs, and that they should be allowed to choose a whip that best suits them instead of being handed an essentially “vanilla” model to use just before getting on the back of a horse. Comparisons were made to other sports, like in baseball and hockey, where the athletes choose and use their own custom bats and sticks.

“Generally speaking, the Guild can't endorse one product over another,” said Shane Gusman, an attorney representing the Jockeys' Guild. “Each jockey currently has their own riding crop because they are different. They have different riding styles, they have different strengths, they have different balances. And that needs to be kept in mind. If you have a situation where Santa Anita is providing one crop, one brand, to every single rider, one size, that's problematic. And we would urge the board to look at it different.”

The board did recognize this flaw in the rule's language and tried to remedy it by first unanimously voting out the section of the amendment that dealt with racetracks controlling and providing the whips. But after more discussion, the best course of action was deemed to be to just postpone the voting and bring it back after a fresh rewrite next month.

“We shouldn't be regulating [the personal preferences of jockeys]. We should allow them the flexibility to decide what sort of tools they want to use,” said commissioner Wendy Mitchell.

Regarding the dimensions and materials that will be outlined in the new regulation, it was noted by several speakers that not everybody accepts the 360 GT as the industry standard.

CHRB Chief Steward Darrel McHargue, for one, said that based on a limited sample of riders he has informally surveyed, there are very few riders using the 360 GT in California right now.

“And that surprised me,” McHargue explained. “There's a reason for that, [to some degree related to] the width of the actual handle of the crop. That varies. Some riders like a thick handle. Some like a more narrow handle.”

But McHargue added that, “I don't think there's anything [related to design] that can't be overcome,” by varying the available sizings.

There was also concern that commissioners should be careful not to “paint themselves into a corner” by writing specifications so rigid that they can't be easily amended if/when better whip technology comes along.

Vice Chair Oscar Gonzales said he wanted the new version of the rule to be written with an eye toward such future improvements.

“I'm just wanting to make sure that we can continue to explore innovation, that whatever dimensions are in place are not restrictive,” Gonzalez said. “In fact, I will go out on a limb to say I think we will see the day where technology is even more integrated, to the point where perhaps there are some kind of sensors or something that will even allow for stewards…to see the number of times, perhaps even the velocity of [whip strikes].”

The whip rule amendment that got postponed on Wednesday is part of a multi-step process as the CHRB ushers in what board members have billed as “the most restrictive whip rules in North America.”

At last month's meeting, the CHRB advanced a proposed rule that would limit the total number of underhanded whip strikes to six within a race, with no more than two of those hits in succession before giving the horse a chance to respond. That proposal is currently in the midst of a state-mandated 45-day public commentary period, and it is expected to pop up on the CHRB agenda for a final vote at a near-future meeting.

In other CHRB voting, the board on Wednesday passed a measure “to establish threshold limits for the presence of certain drug substances and medication in official test samples taken from horses after they complete a timed workout.” It also passed a measure to require mandatory (versus the previous voluntary) participation of trainers and “additional licensees” in the necropsies of fatally injured racehorses.