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Frankie Dettori will no longer have the opportunity to ride in this year’s Melbourne Cup, after picking up a combined sixteen-day suspension for overuse of the whip onboard Trawlerman and Kinross at Ascot on Saturday.
Frankie Dettori, who is yet to land the 'race that stops a nation', was found to have used his whip once more than the permitted level of six when lifting Trawlerman to a remarkable success in the opening QIPCO Long Distance Cup.
The victory was the first part of a memorable double for the Italian maestro, with the 52-year-old later guiding King Of Steel to Champion Stakes glory for trainer Roger Varian and owners AMO Racing.
However, it was his ride onboard Kinross earlier on the card that also caught the eye of the whip review committee and once again Dettori was found to have gone one over the permitted level. Kinross and Dettori traded as low as 1.01 on the Betfair Exchange after striking the front in the closing stages, only to be headed agonisingly on the line by the rallying 40/1 chance Art Power. The winning rider David Allan, who was enjoying his first taste of top-level success, was also found to have gone one over the permitted level.
Elsewhere on the card, fellow first-time Group 1-winning rider Sam James also went one strike over on Poptronic in the Fillies & Mares Stakes. James was referred to the Judicial Panel with this being his fifth suspension within the previous six months for a breach of the whip rules.
With both contests titled Class 1 races, the standard four-day ban is doubled to eight, leaving Dettori with a total of sixteen days on the sidelines.
A BHA spokesperson said: "Ensuring fairness is a key element of the rules and the penalties which are in place – in these cases, those governing the most prestigious and valuable races – are intended to act as a deterrent against overuse of the whip. This is, in part, to ensure that all participants, and those betting on the race, have a fair chance.
"Over the course of the year, we have seen jockeys adapt superbly to the new rules and the overall offence rate has markedly decreased.
"The overall objectives of the rules governing the whip, which came about following a lengthy consultation process and have been refined through regular dialogue with jockeys, are to ensure its more judicious use for encouragement, improving the perception of its use and ensuring that outcomes of races are fair."
The Melbourne Cup will take place at Flemington on November 7, the same day the Dettori's ban begins.
