Melbourne Cup jockey hit with record fine for whip scandal

A champion Aussie jockey has sensationally been banned and fined following a Melbourne Cup scandal that went overlooked.

Champion jockey Kerrin McEvoy has been fined a record $50,000 for excessive whipping on Melbourne Cup runner-up Tiger Moth.

McEvoy started the day with high hopes of becoming the first jockey since 1979 to win a fourth Melbourne Cup with his four-year-old stallion starting the Cup as the equal favourite.

His day ended with a 13-meeting suspension and a record fine after VRC stewards hit him with the unprecedented penalty.

Watch the Melbourne Cup LIVE on Racing.com, available on Kayo. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly

The South Australian jockey very nearly pinched the Cup from winner Twilight Payment as he piloted Tiger Moth to the line with a late charge.

Stewards announced after the final race of the 10-race program at Flemington that McEvoy had used his whip excessively in the run to the line.

The punishment comes after stewards announced another crackdown on the excessive use of the whip this Spring Carnival.

RELATED: Punter wins fortune on absurd 2700-1 shot

Kerrin McEvoy returns to the mounting yard at Flemington.

They showed they mean business by charging McEvoy.

The three-time Cup winner pleaded guilty to the charge after the stewards ruled he used the whip 21 times in the 3200m race — including eight times in the final 100m.

McEvoy admitted he had to press hard during the race to get Tiger Moth into a position to challenge for the win.

“We were able to get across into a nice spot. We dropped in and got a nice lead and he travelled really well. The winner kept running, I just had to pick up to get into the race, which he did, but the winner was just a bit strong today,” McEvoy said after the race.

It comes just days after stewards hit jockey Fred Kersley with a suspension for 10 race meetings and fined him $10,000 for overuse of the whip on Derby Day in Melbourne.

However, McEvoy’s punishment for the same charge was a fine of five-times the punishment handed to Kersley.

Tiger Moth’s second-placed finish gives the connections a whopping pay day of $1.1 million with McEvoy reported to receive $55,000.

McEvoy will feature in Thursday’s Oaks Day, but his suspension commences from after that meeting, scrubbing him from the Emirates Stakes Day on Saturday.

The fine means he will now walk away with just $5000 from Flemington.

McEvoy finished off the day with a win on Exhilarates in the MSS Security Sprint, but it will not have been enough to take the bitter taste out of his mouth.

Earlier, jockey Mark Zahra was also handed a suspension for careless riding in the Hong Kong Jockey Club Stakes.

Zahra was found to have interfered Wild Vixen in the second-last race of the day.