Brazilian-born jockey Silvestre De Sousa is to join Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin stable.

De Sousa, who currently lives in Yorkshire, will relocate to Newmarket and ride alongside Frankie Dettori.

The 31-year-old was a narrow second to Paul Hanagan in the race to be champion jockey last year.

“He will be a big asset to our team and we are very much looking forward to a successful association,” said Godolphin racing manager Simon Crisford.

Last year De Sousa, who won 161 races to Hanagan’s 165, struck up a good relationship with Middleham trainer Mark Johnston, who trains a large string for Sheikh Mohammed’s son, Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Al Maktoum.

De Sousa joined the stable at the start of the Dubai World Cup Carnival in early January.

“We now have a formal arrangement in place with Silvestre and we are delighted that he will be riding for our stable this year,” added Crisford.

“He made a great impression when he was with Mark Johnston last season and he has enjoyed a lot of success at this year’s carnival.”

Godolphin are expected to have more than 400 horses in training for the 2012 flat racing season.

Speaking to

www.godolphin.com

De Sousa, who had been linked with the Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum job soon to be vacated by Richard Hills, added: “It is a fantastic opportunity for me to be riding for the Godolphin team and I am really looking forward to the European season ahead.”

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By Cornelius Lysaght
BBC horse racing correspondent

There is a real feeling that the sometimes bitter dispute over the rules governing jockeys and their whips

is finally over

, so who are the winners and losers?

Both the regulator, the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), and the Professional Jockeys’ Association are, of course, insisting there is only one winner.

With the clock ticking away towards the showpiece Cheltenham Festival, when the eyes of the sporting and social world will be on the Cotswold track, they believe racing itself is the main beneficiary.

And they are correct to the extent that there is now much less chance of the big-race performances of Kauto Star and Hurricane Fly being overshadowed by headlines regarding whip excesses and bans.

It has to be said that the jockeys have got a lot of what they wanted, particularly an instruction for more discretion/common sense from the stewards, and a dilution of penalties for minor infringements.

Additionally, the much-loathed prize-money “fines” will at some point be reduced, though not scrapped altogether.

However, the riders are still being restricted to the eight-stroke limit over jumps, and seven on the Flat, which were at the core of all this when BHA officials sought to satisfy their critics last year.

THE NEW RULES

The amended regulations, to be introduced in time for the Cheltenham Festival, will mean the relaxing of restrictions on the amount of times a whip can be used. The BHA will instead concentrate on the manner and frequency of whip use.

As for the BHA, clearly the fact this is a third set of amendments to the new rules since they were brought in is hardly a ringing endorsement for those that piloted them.

The diplomatic but firm words employed by Paul Bittar, the authority’s chief executive of little more than a month – “well-intentioned…[but]…fundamentally flawed” – rather ring in the ear.

For Bittar himself this has been little short of a triumph.

There were those who said we ghastly media reptiles were horribly unfair to be quizzing the Australian about the whip row even before his jetlag wore off in mid-January.

But the truth was the exact opposite: he had an issue with which to demonstrate his leadership skills straightaway, and with things working out well, his and the BHA’s stock is rising.

That cannot have been said about the authority in ages.

In a BBC interview last week, Bittar referred to his dislike of “land grabs”, ambitions by others, notably the Horsemen’s Group of industry players (owners, trainers etc), to annex BHA responsibilities.

Efforts to see them off his “territory” may suddenly begin to get more straightforward.

And Bittar is not the only new boy called Paul to make his mark during the last frantic days of negotiations.

Paul Struthers, until just before Christmas a spokesman for the BHA, found himself in a position to take the less fashionable gamekeeper-turned-poacher route to become jockeys’ leader.

For him and his members, an early favourable result augurs well for a bright future.

Now, of course, everyone has got to make the amended whip rules work – but with practically everyone that matters a winner here, the mood to make that happen is positive and upbeat.

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Changes to controversial whip rules for jockeys and a revised penalty structure have been approved by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA).

New rules, to be introduced in time for next month’s Cheltenham Festival, will mean the relaxing of restrictions on the amount of times a whip can be used.

The authority will instead concentrate on the manner and frequency of use.

A revised penalty structure has been approved after jockeys said the

previous regulations were too harsh

.

Rather than it being an automatic breach when a rider uses the whip eight times on the Flat and nine times over jumps, the figures become the trigger point for the stewards to review the ride in question.

Analysis

Cornelius Lysaght
BBC horse racing correspondent

It has to be said that the jockeys have got a lot of what they wanted, particularly an instruction for more discretion/common sense from the stewards, and a dilution of penalties for minor infringements

• Read Cornelius’s blog

Stewards will then consider how the rider has used the whip in the course of exceeding the allowed number before deciding whether a breach has occurred and a penalty is warranted.

New

BHA

chief executive Paul Bittar had indicated that he wanted the rules amended before the Festival.

“Over four months have passed since the introduction of the first set of rules following the Whip Review,” said Bittar, after the changes were approved at a board meeting on Tuesday.

“Despite a number of changes to both the rule and the accompanying penalty structure, it is clear that while many objectives of the review are being met, and in particular those pertaining to horse welfare, a rule that polices the use of the whip based solely on a fixed number of strikes is fundamentally flawed.

“While well intentioned, and in accordance with initial requests from the jockeys for clarity and consistency via a fixed number, in practice the new rules have repeatedly thrown up examples of no consideration being given to the manner in which the whip is used as well as riders being awarded disproportionate penalties for the offence committed.”

The whip rules have been a continuing problem since the BHA introduced strict new regulations and penalties just a few days before Flat racing’s new Champions Day at Ascot last October.

French jockey Christophe Soumillon reacted with fury to receiving a ban and

forfeiting over 50,000 in prize-money

after being found to have hit Champion Stakes winner Cirrus Des Aigles six times in the final furlong at Ascot.

Analysis

Joe Wilson
BBC sports news reporter

The initial review of the use of the whip, the product of lengthy and exhaustive research by the BHA, sought to replace uncertainty with clarity. The number of times jockeys could strike a horse was severely restricted. But if they could count, they would know immediately when they were in breach or not. It was black and white. Now it has all gone grey again.

The restrictions on strikes – seven on the Flat, eight over the jumps – still exist. But now they are no more than a guide for the stewards. Each offence is to be treated on its merits.

Further complexity surrounds the issue of financial penalty. In theory jockeys who abuse the whip can still lose their prize money. But that is likely to be amended and finessed, with fines reflecting seriousness of the breach. British horseracing is trying to provide punishments that fit the crime. It is an imprecise science. But it is now what jockeys say they want.

Paul Struthers, chief executive of the

Professional Jockeys’ Association

welcomed the new changes.

He said in a statement: “The PJA is pleased by the decision by the British Horseracing Authority to make important amendments to both the rules and the penalties relating to the use of the whip within racing.

“This change recognises that a ‘grey’ issue cannot be proportionately and fairly regulated by a ‘black and white’ rule, and that jockeys are skilled horsemen who care passionately about horses and are being denied the ability to use their full skill and judgement throughout the course of the race.

“If this is implemented as the PJA believes is the intention, jockeys will no longer be punished for genuine, wholly unintended mistakes nor for otherwise perfectly acceptable rides.”

Welfare groups had welcomed the initial rule changes and Roly Owers, the chief executive of

World Horse Welfare

, told BBC Sport on Tuesday: “There is abundant evidence that the new whip rules are working so it is bemusing that they have been changed yet again.

“Part of this success is through having a robust penalty structure that has achieved a real behaviour change among jockeys. Hence we are concerned that the penalties have been watered down for a third time, and also whether the even greater reliance on stewards’ discretion will effectively work in practice. Time will tell.”

Jockeys were unhappy with the former regime and were on the

verge of strike action at one stage.

“We are confident there is not a welfare problem associated with the use of the cushioned whip in British racing,” said Bittar after the changes were announced.

“The objective of this proposal is to keep jockeys riding to a similar standard as they are now with regard to their significantly reduced use of the whip, but with added discretion and common sense applied by stewards when considering whether a rider is in breach of the rules.”

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Proposed amendments to racing’s controversial whip rules were due to be discussed at a meeting of the British Horseracing Authority board on Tuesday.

New chief executive Paul Bittar has indicated changes could be made before next month’s Cheltenham Festival.

It is thought that the proposals centre on penalties for minor offences and urging stewards to use more discretion.

“The intention is to address these issues before the festival,” said authority spokesman John Maxse.

Analysis

Cornelius Lysaght
BBC horse racing correspondent

“Although the new whip rules have already been amended twice, a string of riders have been hit with suspensions, many of them rated unjust. The jockeys claim the severity of the bans simply doesn’t fit the crime and the BHA chief executive Paul Bittar, only in his post for a month, has made sympathetic noises. Bittar is keen to end the row prior to Cheltenham to avoid the possible PR disaster of the whip dominating jump racing’s most important fixture of the year.”

Any changes to the whip rules are unlikely to be finalised at Tuesday’s board meeting, the last one scheduled before the annual four-day festival starts on 13 March.

However, it will still be possible to achieve agreement from a majority of the nine voting board members before Cheltenham.

Any further watering down of the rules would be opposed by welfare groups who were consulted during the original review and believe the changes have altered the behaviour of jockeys and restricted repeat offences.

The whip rules have been a continuing problem since the BHA introduced strict new regulations and penalties just a few days before Flat racing’s new Champions Day at Ascot last October.

They have twice been amended, but jockeys believe that punishments for relatively minor infringements are too harsh.

Jockeys can use the whip seven times in Flat races and eight times over jumps, but are suspended if they exceed the limit by one stroke.

If they go over the limit by three strikes or more, the rider forfeits their share of prize money.

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Veteran jockey Richard Hills has announced he will end his 33-year riding career next month.

Hills, 49, will race for the last time at the Dubai World Cup on 31 March.

He has been first jockey to Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum since 1997 and will continue to work for the owner.

“No jockey could have ridden for a more loyal and supportive owner,” said Hills. “I want to use my knowledge and experience to further contribute to Sheikh Hamdan and the Shadwell team.”

Tributes to Hills

“He is a most marvellous, reliable and consistent stable jockey. Richard has done us very well over these years,”
trainer John Dunlop

said.

“He’s an extremely good front-running jockey,”
trainer Mark Johnston

said. “That tends to suit our horses and I’ve always liked to use him at Ascot. We’ve had a great association with him and some great times.”

Trainer Roger Varian said

: “He’s a super nice guy and has been a very good jockey and had a very good relationship with Sheikh Hamdan. They were loyal to each other.”

Hills, who was appointed as Sheikh Hamdam’s second jockey in 1995, had the first of more than 1,840 domestic winners on Border Dawn at Doncaster in October 1979.

He rode five British Classic winners for Sheikh Hamdan, taking the 1000 Guineas on Harayir in 1995, Lahan in 2000 and Ghanaati in 2009, the 2000 Guineas on Haafhd in 2004 and the Oaks on the Michael Jarvis-trained Eswarah in 2005.

Hills had already picked up his first Group One on Ashal in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot in 1990.

His other major victories included four Group One races on the Marcus Tregoning-trained Nayef – the 2001 Champion Stakes, the 2002 Dubai Sheema Classic, the 2002 Juddmonte International and the Prince of Wales’s Stakes in 2003.

Two of his best front-running performances came in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot when providing big shocks on Maroof in 1994 and Summoner in 2001.

Hills’ twin brother Michael is also a jockey, while his father Barry is a former top trainer, who worked with both Haafhd and Ghanaati. His brothers John and Charles are both trainers and his son Patrick is also a jockey.

Tadhg O’Shea, Sheikh Hamdan’s current number two, has been linked with the number one job, along with Silvestre de Sousa.

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Champion trainer Paul Nicholls has revealed he is concerned about the health of some of his horses ahead of the

Cheltenham Festival.

Nicholls has cancelled a planned media day on Wednesday for the festival, which starts on 13 March.

“It is fairly obvious we had a moderate weekend. We have several horses coughing,” Nicholls said.

Dual Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Kauto Star is not thought to be affected, said owner Clive Smith.

Somerset trainer Nicholls said: “It is my duty to leave no stone unturned now as we prepare for the last three weeks before the festival.”

Hurdler Zarkandar, who earned a narrow success at Newbury, was the only winner from 31 Nicholls runners on Friday and Saturday.

Nicholls boasts a formidable squad for the festival and is seeking to make history on two fronts.

Big Buck’s is being aimed at a fourth consecutive World Hurdle and 16th straight victory, while veteran Kauto Star looks to regain the Gold Cup having won in 2007 and 2009.

“I talked to Paul on Sunday night and everything is fine with Kauto Star as far as we know,” said Smith.

“Obviously Paul’s got an outbreak and one or two of his horses have got it, but hopefully it won’t affect Kauto Star.”

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Giles Cross became the first favourite to win the Grand National Trial for 10 years with a supreme performance over three and a half miles at Haydock.

Ridden by Denis O’Regan, the 4-1 shot –

allotted a weight of 10st 1lb for Aintree in April

– held off the plucky challenge of Neptune Collonges.

Le Beau Bai,

victor over Giles Cross at the Welsh Grand National

, was third.

“He is a very genuine horse who tries his heart out,” said O’Regan of the Victor Dartnall-trained 10-year-old.

“I would love to ride him at the Grand National but it depends whether the ground suits him.”

After leading from the start, Giles Cross has now seen his Grand National odds slashed by bookmakers to 20-1.

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By Clare Balding
Presenter, Sport and the British

Last week on

Sport and the British

we examined how sport divided us by class, race and gender. This week it’s time to look at how sport unites, whether it is the Scots against a shared enemy (

Anyone but England

) or as a proud nation behind its heroic rugby union team (

Welsh Rugby and its National Heroes

).

Sport, at its best, can cross religious and racial divides and has the power to unite in a way that politics can but envy.

This series is tasked with delving deeper into the history of how certain games developed and who had access to them.

Ireland, Politics on the Pitch

took me to Dublin to discover how the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) was established in 1884 to resist the spread of British sports and replace them with Irish games like hurling and Gaelic football. The GAA describes itself as a ‘cultural and sporting organisation’ and it was determined to protect the soul and the identity of Ireland through the sports that were played.

I went to Croke Park, where at a Gaelic Football match in 1920 the British Army opened fire on the crowd, killing fourteen people including the Tipperary captain Michael Hogan. The day was known as Bloody Sunday.

With the guidance of Professor Mike Cronin, I toured the museum at Croke Park to learn more about the history of the GAA and how influential it still is today.

While avowedly a promoter of amateur sport, the GAA has huge wealth and puts those funds back into the sports facilities or local communities.

The sporting hero has become the most iconic figure of our time and it is not just a modern phenomenon for sportsmen to be idolised. In the Victorian era, W.G. Grace was the most famous man in the country, if not in the world. Easily identified by his bushy beard and his rotund trunk, he has achieved the status of legend in cricket and could pull a crowd like no other.

He is known as the last great amateur but it’s a rather misleading image, as W.G. Grace worked hard to ensure that he remained a dominant player for forty-four years and made more money in appearance fees and ‘travel expenses’ than most professionals today. He was a canny businessman but he adopted an air of the classic English gentleman, unsullied by a dirty thing like cash.

In a game towards the end of his career, W.G. played against as Surrey side that included a batsman making his debut called Jack Hobbs. Both now have their portrait hanging in the Long Room at Lord’s.

Cricket and the English Hero

looks at the contrast between W.G. Grace and Hobbs – the one larger than life and the other shy, self-effacing and undemonstrative.

Hobbs was the first great professional player and for a generation of working class boys who, like Hobbs, could not afford to devote a life to cricket unless they could be paid, he was their hero.

For the War Games programme, I went to the Imperial War Museum to find out how sport had bonded and boosted the morale of troops in the First World War.

Professor Tony Mason describes the debate in Britain as to which sports should continue and which should cease during the war: rugby union closed down but football and rugby league continued, attracting criticism for being ‘unpatriotic’.

For those in the trenches, football was a way of relieving the boredom and distracting the men from the horror of war. An informal truce on the Western Front occurred on Boxing Day 1914, when British and German troops played football in no-man’s land.

By the time of the Second World War, sport was accepted as a good thing for the civilians at home and for the men on active service. Manchester United manager Matt Busby toured a team to entertain the troops – the footballing equivalent of Dame Vera Lynn.

I’ve had a lot of feedback on Twitter and am thrilled that so many people who thought they could never find sport interesting are enjoying the series. Do get in touch on

@clarebalding1

Sport and the British

can be heard at 1345 GMT on Radio 4 each weekday until 9 March or at any time on the

Radio 4 website

or as an

MP3 download.

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Long Run prepared for his defence of the Cheltenham Gold Cup next month with victory in the Denman Chase at Newbury.

Trainer Nicky Henderson’s seven-year-old, ridden by Sam Waley-Cohen, was pushed to the finish by Burton Port, with What a Friend coming home third.

“He jumped really well,” said winning jockey Waley-Cohen.

“He felt like different horse. He was more up for it. We learned how to set him up for a fence when you get him going quicker.”

Continue reading the main story

That is exactly the confidence boost you want to go to the Gold Cup with

Jockey Sam Waley-Cohen

Long Run started as the 4-7 favourite and played a patient game as The Giant Bolster led the running for much of the race.

Henderson’s top chaser then hit the front and seemed set to pull away after jumping the final fence, but stablemate Burton Port’s late surge meant the Gold Cup favourite’s margin of victory was only half a length.

Waley-Cohen added: “I was really pleased with his jumping. He was a little careless with the water [jump], but apart from that he’s jumped really well. You couldn’t ask for more from a seasoned chaser.

“That is exactly the confidence boost you want to go to the Gold Cup with.”

The Cheltenham Festival runs from 13-16 March with the big race run on the final day.

Meanwhile, Ruby Walsh rode the 7-4 favourite
Zarkandar

to a thrilling win in the
Betfair Hurdle

, which like the Denman Chase was rescheduled after last Saturday’s meeting was abandoned because of snow.

The 20-strong field were bunched together until the final few fences, before the pace increased with two to go.

Zarkandar, trained by Paul Nicholls, did not make his move until the final few strides when he found a small gap before claiming victory by a length and a quarter from Get Me Out Of Here and Raya Star.

Champion jockey
Tony McCoy

took a heavy fall at the second-last fence while well placed with Darlan, but

the 2010 BBC Sports Personality of the Year

winner walked away after receiving treatment on the course.

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Tony McCoy landed a four-day ban for excessive use of the whip on Prince Of Pirates at Leicester on Thursday.

He got the 9-4 favourite up on the line to dead-heat with Richard Johnson on Brackloon High (4-1) in the Cavalry Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase.

But McCoy used the whip once more than the permitted eight times and will miss the first four days of March.

“It’s probably best I don’t comment,”

he tweeted

in reference to on-going talks over the whip rules.

“Hopefully something will be sorted,” the champion jockey added, as the

Professional Jockeys’ Association and the British Horseracing Authority try to find a satisfactory solution

before the Cheltenham Festival.

Although McCoy’s penalty would normally attract only a two-day ban, the penalty was doubled because it was his second offence in 12 months.

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