FRANCE: THE SANCTIONS FOR THE ABUSE OF THE WHIP MIGHT BE REVISED

In France, the issue of the use of whips continues to dominate the headlines, but the focus is currently more on the problem of the penalties imposed by the stewards, which are lighter than those currently provided for in the Italian regulations, for example.
There have been many protests from French trade associations. On Saturday, Guillaume Maupas, Secretary General of the UET and Director of Racing and the SETF association, spoke on the subject, stating: ‘An important meeting was held on Wednesday. One of the items on the agenda was the amendment of the new whip regulations and the resulting new scale of penalties. What we noticed when the measure was implemented on 1 April was that it was very well received by drivers and jockeys and that we are seeing very different races. We are able to relax the strict scale we had established. Therefore, the sanctions code committee has put forward a proposal: for the first offence, automatic suspension would be replaced by a fine. This fine would be halved, so no longer 1% of the first prize, but 0.5%. Finally, the additional penalty (two days‘ suspension) that exists for group races, as well as for Quinté betting trials, would only apply to group I and II races.’ This relaxation of the rules has been requested several times by jockeys and drivers. Guillaume Maupas added: ‘The professionals are adapting to the new rules and we must recognise that.’ Although no official date has been announced for the effective implementation of the new sanctions code, this could happen in the coming days, after publication in the official bulletin.