Jockey Drayden Van Dyke sat on an outdoor bench outside the stewards’ office at Santa Anita on Sunday morning, looking as if he wanted to be anywhere else.Van Dyke was summoned for a review of the first and third races on Saturday’s program in which he was deemed to have used his whip in an excessive manner. When he left the meeting a few minutes later, Van Dyke had been fined $1,000 and suspended three racing days, Jan 17-18 and Jan. 22, for the separate incidents. Van Dyke, the champion apprentice jockey of 2014, rode 2-1 favorite Lane Way to a fourth-place finish in Saturday’s first race, and was second on 15-1 Ultimate Hy in the third race. In both races, Van Dyke was faulted for using the whip more than six times in a race, the third and fourth such rules violations by Van Dyke in the last two months.The violations were not intentional, he said.“It’s been tough, especially when you’re in the heat of the battle,” Van Dyke said. “I’ve been trying to get better. It’s a challenge.”New rules regarding whip use went into effect in California on Oct. 1 and have caused substantial changes in the way jockeys ride.Riders are limited to six strikes in a race, all underhanded, and cannot use the whip more than twice in succession before giving a horse a chance to respond. The transition to limited strikes and the restriction of using the whip only in an underhanded motion were the most significant changes enacted to whip rules last year by the California Horse Racing Board.Through Sunday, there have been 47 rulings on the daytime Thoroughbred circuit in Southern California against jockeys found in violation of the new rules, resulting in a total of $15,050 in fines and 28 days of suspensions. Last Saturday, Umberto Rispoli was suspended three days – Saturday through Monday – by Santa Anita stewards Ron Church, Luis Jauregui, and Kim Sawyer for his ride on Mac Daddy Too in the fifth race on Jan. 8. Rispoli was cited for his fourth offense in the last two months of using his whip more than six times in a race. Mac Daddy Too won the allowance race on turf by a nose.Since the Santa Anita meeting began on Dec. 26, Van Dyke and Rispoli are two of six riders who have been sanctioned. Jauregui retired as a jockey in 2006 and began working as an associate steward the following day. He has been among the three-person panel of stewards at most meetings at Del Mar, Los Alamitos, and Santa Anita in recent years.Jauregui and his contemporaries did not have the same restrictions for whip use when they rode.“It’s different because they have to change the style they’re accustomed to,” he said of the current riders.Despite the numerous penalties, Sawyer praised the riders for adapting. For some, the rules have forced a change in decades-old techniques.“Our jockey colony has done an exceptional job of transitioning to the new rules,” she said.In October and November, the racing board gave track stewards a grace period to discuss the new rules with riders on a case-by-case basis and issue reduced financial penalties. Since Dec. 1, the penalties have been more severe, with a minimum fine of $500. Stewards have the option of not penalizing a rider if “mitigating circumstances” are present.Van Dyke said riding styles have been forced to change with the new rules, and that can lead to a variety of perceptions.“If I’m not using the whip after six times, it looks like I’m not trying,” he said. “That will keep pissing people off.“You have to be careful when you use it. Some horses don’t respond to the aggressive hand ride.”As for the financial penalties, the revenue was previously sent to the state of California’s general budget fund, according to a racing board spokesman. Under legislation passed in 2020, the revenue is now directed into racing to pay salaries for oversight veterinarians and safety stewards.