Why the racing industry banned the use of ‘jiggers’ on horses

Electric prods, buzzers or “jiggers” have been used illegally by cheating trainers and jockeys to encourage slow horses for decades. But police seizing four of the taser like instruments from trainer Darren Weir’s properties yesterday surprised many in the industry.

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Electric prods, buzzers or “jiggers” have been used illegally by cheating trainers and jockeys to encourage slow horses for decades.

But Victoria police seizing four of the taser like instruments from trainer Darren Weir’s Victorian properties yesterday surprised many in the industry.

“Racing has never been so clean,” said Rosehill trainer Tim Martin.

Using an electronic device to make a horse go faster is banned under the Australian Rules of Racing and carries a minimum two year disqualification.

Electrical devices like this one used to stimulate horses are prohibited in racing.

Just over a decade ago Victorian trainer Paul Preusker was banned for four years and his partner, jockey Holly McKechnie three years, for using an electric prod on a horse.

At the same time former Victorian jockey Chris Bellette received a 10 year ban from stewards in Perth after admitting he had used electrical devices on horses for decades.

“I’ve used electrical devices on horses in races and training for 40 years,” he said.

“Wherever I went I took batteries to liven up lazy horses,” Bellette told stewards. “This is the first time I’ve been caught.”

For years jockeys used hand held buzzers the size of a cigarette lighter or batteries under the saddle to give the horse a jolt in the final straight.

Jockey Roman Chapa was fined $100,000 after being caught using a “buzzer”. Picture: Coady Photography

In America jockey Roman Chapa was fined $US100,000 and banned for five years after being caught on film using a buzzer during a race in Texas in 2015.

A more sophisticated approach has evolved in Australia with the illegal taser-like electric prod being used during private track work. As the horse comes to the final 100 metres and the jockey uses the whip the horse is also given an electric charge to the neck.

Roman Chapa, 43, was also banned for five years after he was caught. Picture: Police

Similar to the theory of Pavlov’s Dogs, the horse associates the whip with the electric jolt and jumps into life when whipped on race day, even if there is no electric prod, because it thinks the electric jolt is coming.

In the past jockeys Jim Cassidy and Danny Brereton were suspended for jabbing the butt of their whips into the neck of the horse at the spot where the horse had been given an electric charge during training.

Cassidy was banned for the action on Filante in the 1998 Chipping Norton Stakes. Sydney former chief steward Ray Murrihy said: “The connotation is a jigger could have been used at trackwork and you’re (Cassidy) replicating the actions.”