Paul Nicholls fears he may lose the services of one of his key riders for the Cheltenham Festival after he revealed that Lorcan Williams breached the new whip rules at the weekend.
The 23-year-old Williams rode his 19th winner of the campaign on the Nicholls-trained Makin'yourmindup in a Grade 2 novices' hurdle at Haydock on Saturday, winning the race by a short head.
He has told Nicholls that he could receive a 16-day ban, when the Whip Review Committee meets, for his use of the whip under the revised penalty structure which came into force last week.
"I think Lorcan has got himself into some hot water under these new whip rules." he said in his Betfair column.
"My understanding and his understanding is it's got to be confirmed on Tuesday when this Whip Review meets, he thought he was going to get 16 days and rule him out of Cheltenham, which is tough really.
"It's one of those situations where he said if he hadn't given him a couple of cracks then he wouldn't have won, what was he to do, drop his hands and get beat?
"This is where there's a grey area and it's difficult. I don't know what the outcome is, but it looks like he might have to sit out of Cheltenham, which is terribly sad."
Last month, after Harry Cobden breached the rules during the bedding-in period, Nicholls called for the whip changes to be postponed until after the Cheltenham Festival, warning they could be 'disastrous' for the sport.
He said stable number one Cobden is going to have to be careful this week to avoid a similar fate.
"On that, Harry and everyone has got to be careful up to and including this weekend because if you get in trouble this is where you could miss Cheltenham, or days there." he added.
"Into the following week, with the structure of whip reviews and dates, they'd be okay with Cheltenham, so everyone has to be careful this week.
"I've already stressed to Harry that he has to be careful because we don't want him missing Cheltenham because that would be an absolute disaster for absolutely everybody involved. These new whip rules are going to cause a headache, I can see that."
A BHA spokesperson said: "The Whip Review Committee have not yet met to consider referrals from last week. Until they meet to consider the rides then no breaches have occurred and no penalties are decided or imposed, and any suggestion as to possible penalties is pure speculation."
