Sean Bowen handed 18-day totting up ban for whip offences

Sean Bowen will miss two consecutive Saturdays including Betfair Hurdle day at Newbury, having been given an 18-day totting-up ban by racing's disciplinary panel on Thursday. 

The jockey, who is second to Brian Hughes by winners ridden this jumps season, will only have to serve 12 days if he can avoid another breach of the whip rules before April 13.

The hearing was triggered by Bowen's winning ride on Mackelduff at Wetherby a fortnight ago, when he used his whip three times in quick succession on the approach to the final fence. It was his fifth breach in the space of six months.

The panel accepted an argument made on behalf of the BHA that the jockey had not allowed his mount sufficient time to respond on that occasion. It rejected an argument from Bowen that his whip use was necessary to get the horse to focus after a series of jumps of deteriorating quality.

"Four-out was steady, three-out was sloppy," Bowen told the panel. "I felt I had to do something more than just hands and heels. The horse had more to give."

He used his whip once behind the saddle after the third-last fence but did not get the desired response. "Two-out was the sloppiest of the three jumps. 

Sean Bowen: second to Brian Hughes in the jump jockeys' championshipCredit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

"He pecked on landing and almost tripped himself up, purely out of concentration issues. He wasn't tired. It was him being sloppy and lack of concentration. 

"He could easily have tripped himself up over the last. He really had to concentrate because if he got that wrong, it was going to hurt. He then jumped the last better than any of the previous three."

But the panel was not persuaded that Bowen's whip use was intended primarily to focus Mackelduff on the task of clearing the final fence. "We find there was a focus to win the race and not as a safety issue," said the chairman, James O'Mahony. "There was nothing so concerning about the jumping." 

That decision made a totting-up ban inevitable. In mitigation, Bowen pointed to the large number of rides he had taken during the six-month period. 

"This is a jockey who uses his whip sparingly," said his solicitor, Rory Mac Neice. "He can and does go very long periods with no infringement at all."

Mac Neice pointed out that none of Bowen's recent breaches were for excessive use and that three were for using the whip in the wrong place. He explained the jockey had been trying to adapt to backhand use of the whip in anticipation of the forehand ban which has since been abandoned but that, as one of the smaller jockeys in the jumps weighing room, he had found it difficult.

Bowen made this point in comments to the Racing Post last week, saying: "I’ve been punished for something I’ve been trying to get the hang of, which it turns out I never needed to do. I was like a lot of jockeys in that we found we couldn’t use the whip in the right place using the backhand only."

On behalf of the BHA, it was pointed out that Bowen was suspended four times in the first half of 2022 for using his whip in the wrong place. Mac Neice said the rider had worked with jockey coaches to amend his style in the wake of those offences and had enjoyed a trouble-free spell thereafter.

O'Mahony did not directly address that subject in a brief summation but said the panel was concerned that one of Bowen's recent breaches was for using the whip with excessive force. He ordered that Bowen spend one day of his suspension at the British Racing School, receiving training in proper whip use.

Bowen's suspension will begin at the end of next week, running from February 3 to 14.

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