Why Jerry Bailey Is No Fan of the Whip
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MONDAY, JUNE 15, 2020 WHY JERRY BAILEY IS RACING COMES TOGETHER FOR KEENELAND JULY MEET by Katie Ritz NO FAN OF THE WHIP There was a popular aphorism making its rounds through social media in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. ACheck on your friends in Lexington; March Madness and Keeneland are cancelled.@ It=s true, Lexington natives experienced a shocking few days early in March when the cancellation of Keeneland=s annual Spring Meet occurred just days after the announcement that there would be no NCAA basketball tournament. And while racing fans were certainly disappointed that there would be no tailgating on The Hill or a sunny Saturday afternoon shared between 30,000-some attendees on Blue Grass Day, of course the ones who bore the effects of the cancellation were the horsemen and owners pointing their horses towards those few prestigious weeks in April. Cont. p4 Jerry Bailey aboard Empire Maker in 2003 | Horsephotos IN TDN EUROPE TODAY The Week in Review, by Bill Finley The whip issue, which never seems to go away, was front and GUINEAS WIN IS SWEET INDEED center last week as the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) Kelsey Riley chats with Fergus Galvin and Adrian Regan of Hunter approved language that would severely limit the use of the Valley Farm on Sweeter Still (Ire) (Rock of Gibraltar {Ire}), the dam riding crop. Under the new rules, horses can be hit on the of G1 QIPCO 2000 Guineas winner Kameko (Kitten’s Joy). shoulders and hindquarters, no more than two times in a row Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. without waiting for a response and no more than six times total. That led the Jockeys= Guild to issue a stinging press release that expressed its displeasure with the new rules, calling them Aunsafe@ and arguing that they Ajeopardize the integrity of the sport.@ The Guild also called the decision typical of a sport that Ahas a long history of disrespect for jockeys, going back many, many decades.@ Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey no longer has a dog in this fight. Though a former president of the Jockeys= Guild, he=s been retired since 2006. But his opinion should matter. Not only did he ride in over 30,000 races, but, as an analyst on NBC=s racing broadcasts, he has been able to take a step back and observe racing from something other than an insider=s view. Trying his best to understands all sides of the issue, he keeps landing in the same place. Bailey doesn=t agree with his former colleagues. He says racing would be better off if whips were not allowed. AIf I were still riding I=d probably have a different attitude,@ he said. AI was probably a jockey who used the whip more than I should have. I see it from a different perspective now. I see it from somebody on the other side of the fence.@ Cont. p3 PUBLISHER & CEO Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] EDITORIAL [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Managing Editor Monday, June 15, 2020 Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN Deputy Editor Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN Associate Editors Christina Bossinakis @CBossTDN Joe Bianca @JBiancaTDN News and Features Editor In Memoriam: Ben Massam (1988-2019) ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer Amanda Crelin Advertising Assistant/Dir. Of Distribution Rachel McCaffrey Advertising Assistants Amie Newcomb Kristen Lomasson Photographer/Photo Editor Sarah K. 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[email protected] European Editor Emma Berry [email protected] Associate International Editor Heather Anderson @HLAndersonTDN Newmarket Bureau, Cafe Racing Sean Cronin & Tom Frary [email protected] 60 Broad Street, Suite 100 Red Bank, NJ 07701 732-747-8060 | 732-747-8955 (fax) www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 10 • THETDN.COM MONDAY • JUNE 15, 2020 The Week in Review (cont. from p1) change much if you didn=t have whips. If everybody were on a level playing field, I don=t think a significant number of horses Bailey agrees with the current riders when they say the new would be at a disadvantage. I think you would do fine without padded whips don=t hurt the horses, but he says the issue is them.@ bigger than that. What Bailey sees now, but couldn=t when he The Guild=s chief complaint with efforts to take the whip out of was riding, is a sport that has a difficult time explaining to the racing is the safety factor. Riders say the sport becomes more public why whips are necessary. dangerous without the whip. AWe will continue to fight for the AI have heard from many people outside the sport and they livelihoods and safety for our members and the betterment of say that if those horses really love to run like you say they do, our sport,@ the Guild said in its statement. then why do you whip them?@ Bailey said. AThat=s what I hear. I Again, Bailey does not agree. am not talking about core fans, but many people, people who AI feel the reins are the best tool to keep your horse straight,@ watch five or six races a year, tell me they find it offensive that Bailey said. AAbsolutely and without a doubt, the reins are your horses are being whipped. Are they right or wrong? I don=t steering mechanism, not your whip. There are jockeys who feel know. But that=s what they think and how they feel.@ you need the whip as a safety device. If a horse is out of control Bailey said that racing is losing out on the opportunity to and is going to go over one fence or another or go over a pack of cultivate new fans because of the whip. AIf we can do away with heels in a race, the whip is not going to help you. You need to the whip and that leads to drawing in fans who are now use the reins in that case. The reins are the tools to use and in offended by it, that=s a small price to pay,@ he said. my opinion the whip is not going to do you much good.@ Whips have been part of racing since the beginning because it CHRB Executive Director Scott Cheney is on record saying he is assumed that their use can make the horse try harder and run would like to see California eventually go to whip-less racing and faster. Bailey says that just isn=t the case. that the new rules are a first step in that direction. Bailey said AI have said for probably seven or eight years now, that only a interim steps like the one taken by the CHRB make it hard for very small percentage of horses run faster when hit,@ he said. AIt jockeys to follow the rules. Why not just do away with the whip only works on a very few. Most horses give you all they have all together? Cont. p4 without hitting them. I don=t think the times of races would TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 10 • THETDN.COM MONDAY • JUNE 15, 2020 AThings happen really fast and bang-bang decisions are made AWhat I=ve learned in this business is that the horsemen are out there,@ he said. AIt=s hard for a jockey to know whether he talented, but they=re also strong and very resilient,@ he said. has hit the horse six times or eight times or if he has raised his AWhatever environment they=re given, they=re going to make do shoulder high enough. If you took whips away completely, you and make sacrifices.@ can=t break rules on how many times you have hit them. That=s why I think they should just take them away.@ An Ugly Story in Venezuela The Associated Press reported Friday on a tragic story in Venezuela, where a stallion named Ocean Bay was stolen and killed for its meat. According to the AP, the theft of horses in the country is a growing problem because economic conditions have made food hard to come by for the poorest citizens. The horse won four stakes races in 2016. AWhat a disgrace,@ his trainer Ramon Garcia wrote on Twitter.@This isn=t the Venezuela that I grew up in.@ In an effort to distribute purse money and continue the The horse went missing Monday. Three months earlier, seven tradition of the Spring Meet=s historic graded stakes schedule, a other Thoroughbreds had been stolen and slaughtered. plan for Keeneland to return to racing has been in the works ever since they were forced to cancel in April.