The ban that Joseph O’Brien received for his ride on Leading Light highlights the main gripe I have with the current rules.

I would be interested to hear anyone make an argument for the logic of the current rules. They deem eight strokes of the whip to be an appropriate trigger point for a review into potential improper use of the whip for jockeys riding in every race from a five-furlong sprint to staying contests such as the two-and-a-half miles Ascot Gold Cup.

O’Brien may have hit Leading Light 11 times in the Gold Cup, but not only is the four-year-old colt notoriously lazy, quite a few of those whip strokes were in an effort to straighten him as he edged both left and right in the closing stages. Rules are rules, but surely this case highlights the shortcomings of the current regulations in the context of longer distance races.

A sliding scale of an acceptable number of whip strokes which increases in line with the increasing distance of the races would surely be much fairer to all, especially given that in general horses who race over longer trips are more laid back and require stronger riding than their speedier counterparts?