Champion jump jockey Tony McCoy fell foul of the new whip rules for the first time at Ffos Las.
McCoy was found to have used his whip once more than the allotted eight times on Jonjo O’Neill’s Caddie Master, runner-up in a three-mile hurdle race won by Frontier Dancer.
The stewards ruled McCoy had used his whip with excessive frequency, and he will be suspended on November 20-24 inclusive.
McCoy told At The Races: “I’ve been riding for a long time and you ride the way you’ve always ridden.
“I gave him a flick after the third-last and obviously I forgot about it, but it was literally a flick and that counts as a smack now.
“It was barely a flick – I’d have done more good if I’d have patted him I think.
“With the rules the way they are that is what you get five days for.
“You see jockeys like Brian Harding, Richard Hills and Joe Fanning (getting suspensions). Someone told me Joe Fanning hadn’t had a suspension for 20 years.
“You feel a little bit sorry for the owners as well, as that horse would probably have won six weeks ago. That’s the way it is.
“You are doing your best to get them running – it’s all about being competitive and you try to keep within the rules.
“I feel sorry for the owners and a little bit for the sport too. I used to think this was probably the best place to be riding in the world, but you worry what every other country in the world now thinks of you.
“We’re just going to have to get used to it.”
McCoy’s great friend and rival Ruby Walsh was handed a five-day ban for the same offence at Aintree last month, and had an appeal against the suspension dismissed on Thursday.
Both riders face a 10-day suspension for their next offence.
PA AAP TURF
