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Letter of the Week

Rule without teeth

The stewards’ rationale for dismissing protests for breaches of the whip rule (most recently at Morphettville on August 15) is that they cannot determine whether the number of excess hits can be quantified in terms of a margin.
If they insist on keeping the rule in place, why can’t the authorities just disqualify the horse?
It’s much the same as if it returned a positive swab, where they don’t need to prove that the breach of rules actually enhanced the horse’s performance.
The only question is whether the rules were breached. If so, the horse is disqualified.

Kieran Ellis
Northcote (Vic)
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Friday 29 March
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