McCoy picks up five day ban at Ffos Las UK Champion Jump Jockey Tony McCoy fell foul of the new whip rules for the first time at Ffos Las this afternoon. McCoy was deemed to have used his whip once more than the allotted eight times on Jonjo O'Neill's Caddie Master, runner-up in the three-mile pearns.co.uk Putting Patients First Handicap Hurdle won by Frontier Dancer. The stewards ruled McCoy had used his whip with excessive frequency, and he will be suspended on November 20th-24th inclusive. McCoy told At The Races: "I've been riding for a long time and you ride the way you've always ridden. "I gave him a flick after the third-last and obviously I forgot about it, but it was literally a flick and that counts as a smack now. It was barely a flick - I'd have done more good if I'd have patted him I think. "With the rules the way they are that is what you get five days for. "You see jockeys like Brian Harding, Richard Hills and Joe Fanning (getting suspensions). Someone told me Joe Fanning hadn't had a suspension for 20 years. "You feel a little bit sorry for the owners as well, as that horse would probably have won six weeks ago. That's the way it is. "You are doing your best to get them running - it's all about being competitive and you try to keep within the rules. "I feel sorry for the owners and a little bit for the sport too. I used to think this was probably the best place to be riding in the world, but you worry what every other country in the world now thinks of you. "We're just going to have to get used to it." McCoy's great friend and rival Ruby Walsh was handed a five-day ban for the same offence at Aintree last month, and had an appeal against the suspension dismissed on Thursday. Both riders face a 10-day suspension for their next offence. McCoy said: "The problem now for myself and Ruby and the lads that have already been done (suspended), is that it's going to be a long winter. "The horse I rode in the last race, Quazy De Joie, is a big lazy three-mile chaser. If I could have given him a smack early on he might have got competitive and might have been able to win, but you can't risk it any more. "It's disappointing from that point of view and we have to go a long way during the winter without breaking the rules again. "The owners put a lot of money into horses that should be winning races and it's going to be tough on them. "The powers that be will say it will even itself out and there will always be a winner, but is that the right thing for the game? "I've broken the rules and I better not break them again."
