To paraphrase a successful senior jockey – 'good riders don’t need instructions and bad ones don’t follow them'.
I note this in the wake of another messaging own goal coming from Racing Australia in a seemingly bizarrely timed Good Friday eve statement announcing an amendment to the Rules of Racing in relation to riding instructions.
This is the one that cemented jockeys only receive riding instructions from a trainer or owner of the horse they are riding.
Again in seeking – in RA’s own words – they didn’t want jockeys to be confused by receiving “conflicting riding instructions”.
Where did this come from? Where were the serious concerns raised, discussed, tabled and wrapped into this change? Which were later written away as merely formalising a “chain of command”, if you can get your head around that.