Whip Free Racing Shows Lack Of Respect For Punters

The whispers regarding racing in Victoria heading towards whip-free racing are getting louder and the fact they are heading in that direction with no consultation shows a lack of respect for the punter.

If the rise in the POCT wasn’t a sign of where racing in Victoria is at in terms of listening to the punters then surely the idea of staging whip-free racing is a complete kick in the guts.

There have been reports that participants have had to sign nondisclosure agreements while discussing the plans to have a period of whip-free racing in the near future which shows the officials already have no confidence in the idea.

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Instead of talking to punters about how to keep confidence levels high while improving the product, we are now learning that officials will seemingly give in to the anti-racing groups that provide no investment or input into the sport other than wanting it to stop altogether.

We could pick a handful of races each week where you see a horse lacking direction and running left and right while the jockey attempts to get the best out of their mount.

The moment the jockey changes hands with the stick and gives a quick slap the turn of foot is obvious and if you have backed the horse then the relief to see that horse storm into the placings or the lead is enough to make you want to carry the jockey back to scale on your shoulders.

Take the whip away and that horse doesn’t finish off and fails to finish in the placings would create a high level of frustration for those who have backed the horse along with the owners who have spent a small fortune just to get to that point.

It doesn’t seem that long ago that the type of whip used was changed to a padded whip which we’re told is a stitched piece of foam that is designed to make a cracking noise to enable the flight instincts in the horses.

If this is the case then why do we need to make any more changes?

We hear from officials saying that it’s the image of jockeys hitting the horses with a whip that turns young racing fans away.

The fact is, there is no way to keep the punters confidence and turnover high whilst keeping those that don’t like the whips happy other than education and transparency about what the whip is made of and what it is designed to do.

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We could also stop calling it a whip as it is clearly not a whip in the traditional sense of the word. If it is indeed a stitched piece of foam then it must be called something else as when the average person hears whip they think pain.

To finish, if we keep heading in the direction of pleasing those who don’t have the best interests of racing at heart then the punters are going to suffer which means turnover is going to go down which will be the biggest loss to the industry.

Keep the whips but educate those who don’t understand and keep the punters punting.

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