FROM THE SHERIFF'S DESK: KEEPING STEWARDS BUSY

By John Schreck | Tuesday, March 28, 2017

John Schreck, a former Chief Steward in both Sydney and Hong Kong, has seen both the colourful and the dark sides of racing. His wealth of experience and his deep knowledge of racing matters across the board is unquestioned and the reputation he built as a racing ‘lawman’ remains firmly entrenched in racing’s history. Schreck’s personal blog, ‘From the Sheriff’s Desk', appears exclusively on HRO.

The stewards were kept very busy in Sydney on Saturday with several interference and whip rulings having to be made.

Interestingly enough, you will find basically no interference in races in the United States and in many parts of Europe because to cause interference means that the number is immediately taken down ... taken out of the frame ... so riders go to great lengths to avoid causing trouble.

Not that I’m suggesting such a requirement be implemented into Australian racing but, for all of the other problems it causes, such a rule does make riders very careful about how they ride and that goes a long way to cutting out interference.

Any penalty is meant to be a deterrent as much as a punishment ... and that rule is the ultimate deterrent in terms of limiting interference. If they lose a race ... that’s that ... and nobody would want to put themselves in that position again if they can help it.

I have never thought that Australian racing fans would accept that rule but then again, maybe they would to have clean racing.

It certainly generates interference free racing wherever that rules operates.

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Since working overseas and seeing a lot of racing in the northern hemisphere I have been advocating non-stop that racing stewards in Australia make more use of ... what they call in the northern hemisphere ... the inquiry sign.

That means in cases like we saw last Saturday, stewards would simply press the inquiry button after the race and everything would then basically come to a halt.

People would hold their tickets while stewards would view the film and it would give connections the chance to make up their minds about what they wanted to do.

Some might argue about the time it might take ... because there is no time limit on the process ... but the inquiry sign stays up until correct weight is declared or further action is announced.

It is a question of getting it right.

It works very well where it is used and I can’t see any down side to it really but it seems Australian officials are averse to bringing it in.

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As I’ve said many times, protests should only be looked at around the interference factor where it can be measured, at least to a certain extent.

That ‘measuring’ option does not exist with the whip rule and, to repeat my long held view, the option of a whip protest should be removed from the rule book.

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The Dubai World Cup meeting saw Arrogate add to his already burgeoning reputation.

The manner of his victory after missing the start was particularly impressive. Most of us have seen that the best way to get horses that have missed the start back into the race is to just let them carry on in their own time for a period.

If they get hustled along that usually is the end of it, but if the rider just allows them to canter along for a while and calm down and get themselves back into a rhythm they can often close off very strongly.

Both jockey Mike Smith and Arrogate carried off that strategy in a masterful manner providing the highlight of the rich, high profile, international meeting.

Although it is a simple premise it is amazing how sometimes we forget that horse racing is primarily about the horses.

So, in a time where there are not too many positive headlines in the sport, it is good to be able to acknowledge a very good horse.