JOCKEYS riding at the Sydney carnival will seek a meeting with Racing NSW officials to seek clarification on penalties for whip overuse, reports the Courier-Mail newspaper.Its report by Bart Sinclair adds: The jockeys were incensed when Michael Rodd was fined $2000 for hitting Saturday's Rosehill Vinery Stud Stakes winner Faint Perfume twice more than the permitted five times before the 100m.Faint Perfume came from a nigh impossible position on the home turn to just win. Her trainer Bart Cumming
JOCKEYS riding at the Sydney carnival will seek a meeting with Racing NSW officials to seek clarification on penalties for whip overuse, reports the Courier-Mail newspaper.
Its report by Bart Sinclair adds: The jockeys were incensed when Michael Rodd was fined $2000 for hitting Saturday's Rosehill Vinery Stud Stakes winner Faint Perfume twice more than the permitted five times before the 100m.
Faint Perfume came from a nigh impossible position on the home turn to just win. Her trainer Bart Cummings summed up the Rodd situation with a blunt comment: "The rules seem to have been set to make the stewards more powerful.
"The stewards are like umpires. They should be seen and not heard."
Sydney chief steward Ray Murrihy has been a stickler for the controversial whip rules.
It is interesting to note there have been 64 suspensions handed down for excessive use of the whip in NSW and none in Victoria.
Two jockeys were suspended in Melbourne but successfully appealed to the Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board.
The head of the Disciplinary Board, Judge Russell Lewis, made it clear he considered a fine was the appropriate penalty on whip matters.
In Queensland, the stewards monitor the whip usage but there has been no move to follow the strict Sydney approach.
"Ray Murrihy's actions were provocative and unnecessary," Jockeys Association spokesman Paul Innes said.