Harness Racing Australia will continue to work towards a whip ban, but its target of starting at the beginning of the new season has had to be reassessed.
HRA chairman Geoff Want said progress had been made but safety issues meant the move away from whips would not be complete by September 1. Instead there will be changes to strengthen whip rules to help with the transition.
"The HRA executive remains committed to achieving real progress this year," Want said. "To that end, we will focus on implementing on 1 September an even more rigorous rule restricting the use of whips during harness races, to be accompanied by severe penalties for those unable to comply.
"This is likely to mean that only an extremely limited wrist action will be allowed in racing. That would make the use of the whip in Australian harness racing among the most controlled in the world, and we will impose some of the heaviest penalties for misuse."
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