National winner Maguire has no regrets after whipping up a storm

He has recently added the world’s greatest steeplechase to his ever lengthening list of big race successes.

He has been setting the early pace in the 2011-12 title race thanks, largely, to his association with top trainer Donald McCain.

And he is tipped by many riders to become champion jockey when 16-times victor AP McCoy, who is in action at Wetherby today, finally hangs up his boots.

Yet, since his John Smith’s Grand National triumph last month on the McCain-trained Ballabriggs, the 30-year-old rider has been at the centre of a continuing controversy about his riding style – and his misuse of the whip.

Having hit the victor 14 times between the final fence and the Aintree winning post, Maguire was banned for five days – a decision overshadowed by the National’s two equine fatalities and the dehydrated state of those horses that completed the course.

It has sparked a British Horseracing Authority inquiry – a review triggered by Maguire’s National ride and Towcester Racecourse’s subsequent decision to attempt to ban jockeys from using the whip from the autumn.

Maguire, however, says the BHA must not be pressurised into making a snap decision – even though he had to recourse to legal means to reduce a seven-day ban handed out by Doncaster stewards in February for whip violations so he could retain the plum ride on Peddlers Cross in the Champion Hurdle.

There are those, like West Witton trainer Ferdy Murphy, who believe the BHA should be far stricter with serial offenders and see additional bans, under the totting up procedure, encompass two years rather than six months at present.

The North Yorkshire handler also endorses retired show-jumper Harvey Smith’s suggestion that jockeys and trainers should have their share of the prize money forfeited whenever a winning rider breaches whip rules – it is preferable, he says, to disqualifing horses and penalising owners from a financial perspective.

Yet Maguire says the jockey’s perspective is paramount. “I did not go out to hurt Ballabriggs – we’re horsemen and we love horses,” he told the Yorkshire Post.

“I broke the rules and I got suspended for what I did. I accept that. It happened. But how would people have responded if I had not ridden the horse out – and got caught on the line? I would have been accused of not trying.

“There’s a lot of talk that the review has been pre-empted by my National ride. It has not. The National is just one race. We need to look at the whole sport. If you take sticks away, you will have horses refusing or pulling up before the final fence – particularly at a course like Towcester, with an uphill finish.

“Momentum is crucial to getting over an obstacle – and a jockey knows that the horse must come first. Would people be happy if there were races where no horse finished? You also need them for keeping a true course.”

Murphy, for one, agrees that the whip is essential – he says animals have been herded by sticks “since time immemorial” and that this is natural.

He also knows that three quick slaps by jockey Timmy Murphy sufficiently galvanised his Poker de Sivola to produce a winning leap at the final fence in last month’s Bet 365 Gold Cup at Sandown – even though the rider received a two-day ban.

Like many, he noted the polished big race riding of Ryan Moore and William Buick at last week’s Dante meeting where they used ‘hands and heels’ to win the three feature races rather than pick up their stick in the closing stages of highly-competitive races.

“They are fitness fanatics who have the strength to ride a strong finish. My stable jockey Graham Lee is the same – he has such a disciplined fitness regime that it is very rare for him to banned,” said Murphy, who also cites the example set by the aforementioned McCoy, who used pure strength as Jaunty Journey denied Maguire’s mount, Lion on the Prowl, at Aintree last Friday night.

It was a signature ride from the champion, whose mount appeared beaten with a circuit to go - and prompted him to tell National Hunt racing’s star-struck younger riders: “Don’t want you thinking I’m finished.”

Maguire was phlegmatic. There was, he says, only going to be one winner because his horse was not bred to stay. He also says that title talk is premature – even though McCoy and Maguire have each ridden 15 winners this season.

“There’s a long way to go before AP or Dickie Johnson hang up their boots,” added Maguire. “I’d like to be champion, but I’m not ready yet. I’ve still got a lot to learn. And if I can learn anything from watching them in a tight finish, then I will. If recent weeks have taught me anything, it is that you can’t win Nationals, or titles, if you’re sidelined.”