NHRA lays down the law

David Thiselton wrote
The National Horseracing Authority (NHRA) had a meeting on July 21 in response to the plethora of racing infringements that took place during the Champions Season. The Scarlet Lady, the KRA Guineas, the KRA Fillies Guineas, the Lonsdale Stirrup Cup, the Post Merchants, the Durban Golden Slipper, the Vodacom Durban July, the Jonsson Workwear Garden Province Stakes, the Gold Circle Derby and the Mercury Sprint were some of the feature races where infringements occurred. The NHRA released a press statement subsequent to the meeting reading, “The National Horseracing Authority has reviewed its approach to dealing with incidents in Feature Races. Any incident in any feature race, which is perceived by the Stipendiary Stewards to constitute a possible infringement of (“the running rules”), shall be referred to an Inquiry Board for investigation and adjudication. Inquiry Boards in addition to the other factors which are usually taken into account when a suitable penalty is considered, will also take into consideration the consequences which may flow from an infringement of the running rules, the nature and importance of the race in question, the perception of the public and the interests of the various stakeholders. Having regard to the above consideration which will be taken into account, it is probable that more serious penalties will in future be imposed in feature races for infringements of the running rules.”

Read "Scot Free" for some interesting posts on the subject.
People will have different views on the ruling and I respect that. I agree with the majority of the posters on that site.

My question is - Why should it only be "feature races". It should be all races.

My reasons are as follows:
To the owner (no matter big or small) his horses are his most expensive investment. Now, I know that many of the big guys own horses as a pastime and really don't care about money. In my opinion, any owner would expect the rules /law to protect his horses against abuse etc at all times.

I question the severe punishment for jockeys in feature races only because, in SA we have some very high valued horses running such as Potala Palace. The purchase price of this horse exceeds the stake money for the "July" by far. Any horse no matter what the purchase price, have to start as a maiden in their career.
Is it not fair to say that eg. Potala Palace (or any other horse for that matter) deserves the same type of respect in a maiden race as those running in a feature.
I am using the word "respect" because it would seem that there are 2 rules that are applied for punishment of the jockeys and a lack of respect for even expensive horses running in a minor race.
The NHRA is now laying down the law. I think that there is more work to be done on this matter.

Your thoughts in this matter will be appreciated.

I have followed the thread on Scotfreeracing and completely agree with Magic and I discussed it with him. The stakes the jockey can earn in big features in comparison to the penalty imposed is what we should be looking at. If he is going to earn R 100000+ for winning a race and knows he probably only get a week or maybe 10 days for that, is it not worth his while to take that chance.The Thandolwami guys had this and I can understand their frustration. In the Kings cup Anton was flying through and got taken out by 2 jockeys and Anton assures me he was coming through to win going away but had to check badly and ran unplaced. The 2 jockeys concerned got 1 week suspension and the winning jockey got around R10000 for winning the race anyway. That interference probably cost us around R100000 in stake money and that was just a small feature. When you get to the July and other features you are talking huge money. I do agree with Eastexpo in that I think all our penalties are to small. Force them to ride properly and as I said I agree with Magic that possibly a sliding scale is the answer but we cannot keep going with some of the Jockeys riding without any consideration for their fellow jockeys, owners, trainers and especially horses because the deterrent to them riding like that is out weighed by the possible financial gain due to them riding like an idiot.

The P.E. Mafia (jocks) they use to give visiting jocks a hard time.
They used to have turns to box a rider's horse in a race or bump the visiting jocks horse.
Most of the interference use to be on Delpech who use to ride for Greeff at that time.
Stipes didn't do much to prevent these infringements.
However, Delpech won the championship that season.

P.S. The group of P.E. Mafia jocks don't exist anymore.

The rules should be the same for every race and the fines should vary depending on the stakes involved.

If I steal a chocolate bar and a car the crime is still theft, but you can by thousands of smarties for 100 grand ()

I believe the fine or suspension should increase with the size of the stake. Same rules just bigger fines or longer suspensions. Do you think Formular one drivers would drive as fast and take as many risks as they do if it was just an ordinary race as apposed to one where they getting paid a million per point earned? It is the same with Jockeys, the bigger the race the more risks they will take to win that race. If the only consequence of their dangerous or foolhardy riding is a week or ten days suspension then most will take that risk. I sat in the meeting when this was discussed and an ex jockey said he had done the same and that most jockeys think that way.