Chris Cook: chewing over the whip stramash with Paul Struthers, who helped solve the last one

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Next week will bring the 11th anniversary of an interesting and effective bit of diplomacy that helped take the heat out of a long-lasting whip furore. If only we could get a re-enactment!

The Front Runner was reminded of the fact during a conversation with Paul Struthers, who has just launched his consultancy, Moya Sport. Back in February 2012, he was the brand new chief executive of the Professional Jockeys Association. He had a similarly new opposite number at the BHA in Paul Bittar and the two men met early that month to tackle the hottest topic of the time.

"It gets forgotten," Struthers says, "but that whip furore had been going for five months. Paul and I sat down and we pretty much got it cracked." As he recalls it, the modified version of the whip rules which they agreed upon "lasted ten years without, really, a good deal of complaint, apart from too much navel-gazing in my view from within racing."

Reports from the time explain that the rules, stiffened up the previous October, had some of the starch taken out of them by the two Pauls with the aim of making them workable. A statement from Bittar said: "While well intentioned, and in accordance with initial requests from the jockeys for clarity and consistency ... in practice the new rules have repeatedly thrown up examples of no consideration being given to the manner in which the whip is used as well as riders being awarded disproportionate penalties for the offence committed."

Struthers is quoted as saying: "This change recognises that a grey issue cannot be proportionately and fairly regulated by a black and white rule." It all sounds very relevant to the arguments now raging once more as our sport begins, today, to implement a newly toughened whip regime.

It's also a good example of the kind of experience and acumen Struthers brings to his new role. Having left the PJA at the end of 2021 and taken time to consider his next move, he is now seeking clients and hopes some of them will come from racing. 

I hope it goes well, having often benefited from his insights over the past 20 years - as you might recall, he spent time at the Jockey Club, the BHB and then the BHA, including as head of communications, before joining the jockeys.

His website features glowing words from Ryan Moore, a hard man to impress, who says: "Paul led the PJA brilliantly in his ten years in charge. He knew his stuff and what he was doing, anticipated issues, had our best interests at heart and I trusted his judgement and advice completely." 

Ryan Moore: 'Paul led the PJA brilliantly in his ten years in charge.'Credit: Bryn Lennon (Getty Images)

What does he offer to new clients? "Basically, it's putting my experience over the last 15 to 20 years together in crisis comms, stakeholder comms, sports integrity and welfare. 

"I'm trying to help people improve their processes, help them build better relationships and enhance reputations, through the experience I've had. Whether that's representing athletes in hearings or lobbying or regulatory change or managing significant PR crises or potential crises.

"Not many people have worked for both a player association and a governing body or regulator. There will always be an element of friction between a governing body and the players. You'll never get away from that. 

"As much as I could stamp my feet and wasn't shy about going public with issues when I was at the PJA, when I felt that was what needed to happen, we fundamentally had a really, really good relationship with the BHA." He hopes he can show others how such fruitful working relationships can be built and maintained.

"There is friction that could be avoided, often in my view because there's an inability on the part of governing bodies to apologise for things. And this isn't unique to sport, you see it a lot in politics and in business." Approvingly, he cites the recent apology by British Gas's Chris O'Shea. 

"I'd love to get some clients in racing and hopefully will because I still really love the sport. It's obviously worrying, about field-sizes in jump racing and the prices of favourites at Cheltenham and entries for the Grand National. Equally, I still think there are opportunities for racing and there is a healthy future for it."

If that healthy future is to be reached, the whip issue will have to be resolved, again. Struthers clearly thinks it is a mistake for stewards to be deprived of an element of discretion, which previously allowed them to discount one or two uses of the whip by a jockey in certain circumstances. In a jump race, for example, an instance of using the whip might be left out of calculations if it was to correct a horse who was running down an obstacle or following a jumping error.

"Now all that discretion's gone. That is going to be really, really hard because it was hard to deal with before.

"When I took over at the PJA in 2012, discretion had been removed between October and February and jockeys did not get used to it. It was a fixed limit until Paul and I agreed to bring in some discretion, which was never as much as I thought it should have been but it was welcome all the same. 

"They will undoubtedly get used to it because jockeys are a remarkable group of men and women, who are so adaptable to change and cope so well with pressure, but it is going to be very difficult. It will make riding hard, thinking about what they are having to do. 

"I would take very short odds on this happening, that during Cheltenham there will be a mini cottage industry on social media of people counting how many times jockeys used the whip in every race. There will be jockeys who are so petrified of getting a significant ban that they may only use the whip four or five times and leave a couple of uses up their sleeve, lose by a narrow margin and get criticised for it, either in public or in private by connections.

"The next two to four weeks are going to be a real test. I think it will be a period of pain, particularly for jockeys. The doubling of penalties in Class 1 and 2 races is huge. You only have to go two over at Cheltenham and you're looking at a 14-day ban. 

"For the life of me, I can't see how that is remotely proportionate. But too many people in racing convinced themselves it [a whip rule breach] was effectively jockeys cheating and getting rewarded for it."

The Front Runner is our latest email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, a four-time Racing Reporter of the Year award winner, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday. Not a Members' Club Ultimate subscriber? Click here to join today and also receive our Ultimate Daily emails plus our full range of fantastic website and newspaper content