Jockeys had their chance and missed it - now tougher whip rules seem certain

It might have been too late to make a difference to the whip review, which is finally expected to turn up in the next couple of months, but last week's Cheltenham Festival was a chance for jockeys to show that stiffer penalties for breaking the rules would not actually be justified. Unfortunately, that chance was blown by a series of late lapses.

It had all started so well. We got through the first day without a single whip-related breach. There was not so much as a caution resulting from any of the 93 rides across seven races that day, even though huge sums and career-defining successes were on the line. The Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle was decided by just a short-head, with one of the week's hottest favourites narrowly defeated, but Mark Walsh and Paul Townend kept within the rules while fighting it out from the third-last.

Indeed, the first dozen festival races were blemish-free, as far as whip use was concerned. But then things started to go awry.