
Originally Posted by
raynaputi
According to Keith, these whips don't really do any harm to the horses. It's like a tap to them (have you seen the stable girls/boys who taps the horses after the races? It's the same thing). And the jockeys are only allowed 8 times I think to whip the horse at the race. There are counters for that and jockeys are punished if they exceed the number of whips allowed. They are banned for racing for a number of days or a week I think (and these jockeys usually races a number of times everyday). And most jockeys don't do any harm to these horses. When a horse fall down on hurdles in the race, you can see the jockeys staying beside the horse until he/she is sure the horse is fine (like what Ruby Walsh did on Thursday with Arctic Fire and today with Balthazar King). I remember when Synchronised died, AP McCoy was so upset that he didn't race for a few days.