Grey area or harsh call? How J-Mac could test the whip rules

James McDonald felt harshly dealt with when he was suspended and fined for exceeding the whip limits on Fireball in Saturday’s Inglis Millennium.

He has decided to test the whip rules on appeal, which will be heard at Racing NSW on Wednesday.

There has to be a penalty for breaking the rules and stewards have been consistent with fines and suspension when a jockey breaches the whip rules in million-dollar races – Chad Schofield on Ceolwulf in the Champion Mile and Damian Lane on Treasurethe Moment in the Australian Oaks in the past year.

It is understandable that competitive instinct takes over when the prizes get bigger, but most jockeys don’t have trouble counting most days.

Jockeys are only asked to count to five up until the 100m mark and then it’s open season from there under the whip rules, which are not black-and-white, rather an arbitrary number is used by each state to determine what is excessive.

McDonald’s offence was excessive use of the whip and it came because of he exceeded the 18 strikes, hitting Fireball 20 times, allowed in totality.

He hit Fireball 20 times, starting with a couple of backhanders, and he was four strikes over the limit before the 100m mark.

He might try to show the stewards have miscounted, but he agreed to the number on Saturday.

His lawyer could argue that unlimited from 100m is just that, and therefore you can’t have a definition of excessive use that includes strikes post 100m mark.

Stewards have a good record at holding whip penalties on appeal, because it plays to the social licence of the sport.

The rule really needs to be more rigid and take the debate about how much is too much.