Was Steven Gagan harshly treated?

Question

He was the jockey who was banned for seven days after he his horse, Sacrilege, 11 times when he tried to get the horse to start at Ascot on Saturday. Opinion seemed to be split pretty evenly punishment was thought in some quarters to be too lenient and in others it has been seen as harsh. The key point was that the stewards believed that at least some of those strikes with the whip were “in annoyance” which is against the rules.