Champion jump jockey Tony McCoy has been given a five-day ban after falling foul of the new whip rules for the first time at Ffos Las on Sunday.
McCoy was deemed to have used his whip once more than the allotted eight times on Jonjo O'Neill's Caddie Master, runner-up in a handicap hurdle.
The Northern Irishman will be suspended on November 20-24 inclusive.
"I gave him a flick after the third-last and obviously I forgot about it," McCoy told At The Races.
"But it was literally a flick and that counts as a smack now. It was barely a flick - I would have done more good if I had have patted him I think.
"With the rules the way they are that is what you get five days for.
"You see jockeys like Brian Harding, Richard Hills and Joe Fanning (getting suspensions). Someone told me Joe Fanning hadn't had a suspension for 20 years.
"You feel a little bit sorry for the owners as well, as that horse would probably have won six weeks ago. That's the way it is.
"You are doing your best to get them running - it is all about being competitive and you try to keep within the rules."
Ruby Walsh was handed a five-day ban for the same offence at Aintree last month, and had an appeal against the suspension dismissed on Thursday.
Both riders face a 10-day suspension for their next offence.
McCoy said: "The problem now for myself and Ruby and the lads that have already been done is that it's going to be a long winter.
"The horse I rode in the last race, Quazy De Joie, is a big lazy three-mile chaser.
"If I could have given him a smack early on he might have got competitive and might have been able to win, but you can't risk it any more."
