Allen “Bongo John” Maragh, this year’s Jamaica Derby winning rider, believes that the whip should be used to keep a horse and rider safe and should not be misused, and thus he is opposed to the excessive usage of whip in the racing industry.

The Jamaica Racing Commission (JRC) is currently reviewing the rule on excessive use of the whip and is also close to adding a new rule of racing that will limit the number of times a jockey can whip a horse in any one race.

The present rule (Rule 138 (5)) which deal with excessive use of the whip does not include the number of times a jockey can use the whip in a race.

Stewards of the JRC are currently in consultation mode with stakeholders, especially the jockeys. One such consultative effort was held at Caymanas Park on October 26.

This rule change will bring local racing in line with what is considered international standards, specifically aimed at protecting the health of horses.

While the whip is necessary, Maragh believes that the riders’ inappropriate use of it is wrong.

“The whip is necessary, yes, but it depends on how you use it. Whip is always necessary for the horse for guidance. The horses do respond by just knowing that you have the whip; it just acts as a reminder, but some of us riders overdo it and also don’t do it correctly. So we just have to find a way to adjust that,” Maragh told the Jamaica Observer‘s The Supreme Racing Guide.

“The excessive use of the whip is wrong, and I am against it. If the horse can’t go anymore, the whip can’t make him go anymore, and that’s the bottom line. If the horse is giving you everything and can’t win, they just can’t win.

“Horses love to run, and they will give you everything. If a horse doesn’t want to run, you can’t get them to run. They want to win as well; they don’t want to lose, but they are feeling pain and you are beating them; that’s wrong,” he added.

Maragh also stated that jockeys should respect certain behaviors because they sometimes do not feel what the horses are feeling.

“Most of the times, when the horses don’t want to go anymore, they are protecting themselves. They know they just can’t go; they can feel like they are running out of breath, and some of them have internal things that we can’t see. That’s why horses collapse after races.

“Some horses are running hot inside, and they are just running out of steam, and they just managed. Horses are like humans, they can feel when things are not right,” Maragh said.