Sean Bowen frustrated at bans while practising for discarded whip rule

Sean Bowen has expressed his frustration at being referred to the BHA’s independent judicial panel for a fifth whip suspension in the past six months, with three of those bans coming for using the whip in the incorrect place when he was practising for the now discarded backhand-only rule.

Bowen, who sits second in the jump jockeys’ championship, was one of four riders found to have breached whip rules when the new three-person whip review committee met for the first time on Tuesday.

The most high-profile of Bowen’s offences came aboard Many Clouds Chase winner Noble Yeats at Aintree in December, with the rider banned for four days for using the whip in the incorrect place when adopting the backhand position.

The whip review committee, chaired by BHA regulatory adviser Sam Angell, deemed Bowen to have used his whip without giving time for his mount Mackelduff to respond in a handicap chase at Wetherby on Saturday, taking his whip offence tally to five since August.

Bowen said: “It’s frustrating as I’ve been punished for trying to do it the proper way – then they ended up going back on the rule anyway. That was obviously a good thing but at the same time 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 hope that can be considered when it comes to the referral.

“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. The backhand rule was never going to work as lots of jockeys would have been banned for that, but at least they’ve seen sense and brought the forehand back.”

Noble Yeats has won at Wexford and Aintree under Sean Bowen this seasonCredit: Patrick McCann

Bowen is three winners away from beating last season’s domestic tally of 94 and closing in on a maiden century. He is 30 winners behind leader Brian Hughes in the championship but is not giving up hope despite the forthcoming referral.

“I’ve been trying hard to reduce the gap and had a nice treble at Wetherby the other day,” said Bowen, who boasts a £1 level-stake profit of £177.33 this campaign. “Anything is possible in this game. I’m not going to stop trying and will be riding as much as I can.”

Last week, a bedding-in period for the new whip rules began with jump jockeys having a month to get used to the changes, which include a reduction by one in the number of times the whip can be used and the introduction of disqualification when going four or more above the strike limit.

The number of potential breaches over the past week to the new rules, which will be enforced over jumps from February 6, will be revealed on Thursday.

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