UK WHIP RULES – NO RELENT

Mavis Pike has become the second horse in as many weeks under the new BHA whip rules to be disqualified after her rider James Turner was found to have used his whip five times over the permitted level at Newcastle on Saturday.

Turner, an amateur rider, was suspended for 20 days after the whip review committee determined on Tuesday he had used his whip 12 times on Mavis Pike, trained and owned by Nigel Twiston-Davies, when she finished second in the mares’ all-weather bumper.

Six of the nine jockeys found in breach of the whip rules, which came into effect over jumps on February 13, were either conditional or amateur riders. Conor O’Farrell, who received a four-day ban last week for using his whip without giving his mount time to respond, was handed another four-day ban this week for using his whip once over the permitted level.