THE Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) plans to brief jockeys regularly over the coming months with regard to new whip rules which will come into force on Tuesday.

The new rules will see that stewards are required to consider punishment “if the rider appeared to have hit his mount with the whip nine times or more during a race when the whip hand had left the reins.”

The introduction of these new whip rules has been criticised by Andrew Coonan of the Irish Jockeys Association, while Ruby Walsh has also criticised the introduction of a limit to the number of times the whip can be used before an inquiry is automatically triggered.

IHRB chief executive Denis Egan said: “We will work continuously with jockeys on racedays over the next month or two to brief them on the new rules.

“I think those who have reacted negatively to the new whip rules are missing the point. The stewards will only be enquiring when the ninth hit takes place and they will be taking into account the circumstances of the race. There will definitely be a discretionary aspect.”

Initial whip offences will be dealt with on the day of racing, with penalties ranging from a caution to one or two-day bans. Jockeys who are in breach of the rules three times or more in 12 months will be referred to the Referrals Committee and can expect a ban of at least six days.

On this, Egan added: “Previous offences have been taken into account when stewards are considering bans for jockeys and that will continue to be the case, but it’s worth noting that all jockeys will start on a clean slate once the new rules come in. So if a jockey has three recent offences to his name, these won’t be considered if they have an offence after April 10th.

Senior jockey Niall McCullagh told The Irish Field: “I’d welcome stewards being able to use their discretion and I think, in a lot of cases, common sense will prevail.

“If you’re in a ding-dong finish, I don’t think you’re going to get punished for going one or two over, as long as you’re giving your mount time to respond.”

There has been increasing focus on the whip issue in the racing world, with officials in Santa Anita set to implement a new rule that would see the whip allowed as a corrective safety measure only.

Egan said: “I think Ireland will continue to have liberal whip rules. If you look at other jurisdictions like France, Australia and Germany, there is a five-hit limit.

“The vast majority of Irish jockeys don’t break whip rules. Irish jockeys are very responsible and I don’t expect this new ruling to cause the number of whip offences to go up. I think our jockeys will adjust and adapt.”