Whip rule breach sees Aintree feature winner disqualified

Grand National Festival winner Laafi has been disqualified after his jockey was found to have breached whip regulations at Aintree.

The six-year-old, trained in Ireland by William Durkan, had scored a surprise 20‑1 victory in Friday’s Debenhams Handicap Hurdle, a race limited to conditional jockeys and amateur riders. However, a subsequent review overturned the result.

The British Horseracing Authority’s Whip Review Committee ruled that rider Patrick O’Brien used his whip four times above the permitted maximum of seven from the second-last hurdle to the finish. None of the strikes were deemed to be for safety purposes.

As a result, Laafi was disqualified from the final placings and O’Brien was handed a 28‑day suspension.

Laafi becomes the fifth winning horse to be disqualified for whip-related offences since revised rules were introduced in 2023, a figure that comes from a total pool of more than 30,000 winning rides.