Senior jockeys will be banned from using the whip for encouragement for the first time in British racing when a £1.8m series of races based on a league format launches later this year.
The Racing League, the brainchild of Jeremy Wray, a former chairman of Swindon Town FC, will unfold across six evening meetings this summer, each of which will have six handicaps with a prize fund of £50,000 per race.
While details of the participants, human and equine, have yet to be confirmed, 12 teams, each consisting of between two and four trainers, three jockeys and 30 horses, will field a runner in each of the 36 races, with league points awarded according to their finishing positions.
All of the meetings – at Doncaster, Lingfield, Newcastle and Windsor – will be televised by Sky Sports Racing, and jockeys will wear team colours rather than the silks of the horse’s owner.
The team with the most points at the end of the competition will earn a bonus prize shared between the team members, stable staff and a team ambassador who will be “picked at random from the public at the start of the competition”.
The Racing League’s decision to ban the use of the whip for anything but “safety and correction purposes” could prove controversial, not least as the British Horseracing Authority has only recently launched a consultation on use of the whip following a recommendation from the independent Horse Welfare Board.
It also remains to be seen how punters and racegoers will react to top jockeys riding a finish with only hands and heels, as is the case in a limited number of contests for apprentice and conditional riders.
“I’m conscious that at the moment, the whip is again a centre of attention,” Wray said, “but my understanding of the welfare report that came out [last week] is that what we’re doing is probably in line with future thinking of what they need to look at. If the Racing League provides 36 races of data for people to analyse, that can only help, surely.”
Under the BHA’s rules for hands and heels races, riders who mistakenly use their whip for encouragement face a fine or suspension but their mounts are not disqualified for betting purposes. The same rules are expected to apply for Racing League events.
The full list of Racing League fixtures will be confirmed within the next few weeks, and the inaugural meeting will be held on 16 July.
