‘The sport is shooting itself in the foot’ – Willie Mullins fumes at the timing of whip changes

New whiplash rules for jump racing are expected to come into force in Britain next Monday and Willie Mullins slams the timing of the introduction as ridiculous and says the sport is shooting itself in the foot by raising the issue so close to the Cheltenham Festival highlights.

According to data from the BHA’s new three-person whip review committee, 43 rides would have conflicted with the revised whip rules in the first week of the embed period for jump jockeys.

Mullins believes that if changes are to be made to the whip rules, it should be done in the summer, not in the run-up to the most important week of the entire season.

The nine-time head coach at the festival of 88 winners is at a loss as to the timing of the changes, likening it to changing the rules of a World Cup ahead of the knockout stages.

Mullins said: “Why do they always bring these things out before Cheltenham? It should be done in the off-season. It’s tantamount to introducing new rules for the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the World Cup, all for the wrong reasons. It’s like shooting yourself in the foot job.”

He added: “This whole thing should be done in the off-season as it would be in any other sport. They should try it somewhere at the start of a new season, not now.

“Whip rules are for my jockeys, that’s their business, not the trainer. But when my horses start losing races because the jockeys broke the whip rules, then it becomes my business. What I don’t understand is why they do it now.”

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