Trainer Rob Heathcote slams ‘farcical’ whip rule after jockey Jim Byrne lodges protest against winner

AUSTRALIA’S controversial whip rules were in the spotlight again when two of Queensland’s leading jockeys went head to head in the stewards room at Doomben.

Rob Heathcote didn’t hold back at Doomben on Saturday. Picture: Mark Cranitch

AUSTRALIA’S controversial whip rules were in the spotlight again when two of Queensland’s leading jockeys went head to head in the stewards room at Doomben.

And Rob Heathcote, who trained winner Dream Choice, could barely contain his contempt for the whip rule regulations.

“Turn that (result) over and I will take up greyhound training in NSW, “ Heathcote told stewards. “We haven’t got long enough to discuss what I think of this farcical whip rule.”

The drama of the protest, dismissed in quick time, started when jockey Jim Byrne (second-placed Upstart Pride) protested against Jeff Lloyd (Dream Choice) for hitting his mount too much.

Lloyd’s mount Dream Choice won by half a neck after running past Byrne on Upstart Pride in the last 50 metres of the 1200m Handicap at Doomben.

Byrne fired in a protest, alleging Lloyd had hit his mount three times more than allowable under the rules of racing.

“He (Lloyd) made up ¾ length by breaching the rule, there is no chance he would have caught me if he hadn’t,” Byrne claimed.

Lloyd, who leads the Brisbane jockeys’ premiership, said even if he had breached the whip rule it had no influence on the result.

Stewards dismissed the protest in record time and declared correct weight.

Originally published as Trainer Rob Heathcote slams ‘farcical’ whip rule after jockey Jim Byrne lodges protest against winner