New York Gaming Commission plans to address whip use at October meeting

The New York Gaming Commission hopes to hold a hearing in October to discuss restrictions on the use of the whip as the next step in devising new whip-use rules, members of the commission said at a meeting on Monday.

Barry Sample, the chairman of the gambling commission, which regulates horse racing, said at the Monday meeting that the commission would invite “all parties that are most pertinent” to the October hearing. The list would presumably include representatives of riders, racetracks, and horsemen, among other interested parties, as has been the case in most other jurisdictions that have adopted new rules on the use of the whip.

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Peter Moschetti, one of the commissioners, said that staff at the commission had produced a report in July assessing the possibilities for the new rules, including a review of the rules that have recently been approved in California, Kentucky, and New Jersey. Those rules differ from one another in several major ways.

Last week, the New Jersey Racing Commission adopted a rule effective in 2021 that will only allow riders to use the whip “to control the horse to avoid injury to the horse or rider,” the most restrictive rule in the U.S. California, Kentucky, Delaware, and Maryland all limit riders to a certain number of strikes, and all of those also require riders to give a horse the “opportunity to respond” before a rider can use the whip again.

Commissions across the U.S. have begun to consider new restrictions on whip use due to the increasingly negative public perception of using whips on an animal. In addition, a federal bill that is expected to pass this year would empower a new national regulatory body to issue rules on whip-use, but that regulatory body would not be functional until Jan. 1, 2022, at the earliest.

“I think it’s better if we do this sooner rather than later,” said Sample.