EVERY time I catch sight of the nominations for a “ride of the month” award from whatever source, I try not to look as I know it’s going to raise my blood pressure, and the Losartan is barely keeping that in check as it is.

The criteria have changed a bit from the days when “jockey never stopped hitting him” was considered the height of horsemanship, although Patrick Mullins did win an award at the Lesters for a ride on Rathvinden which earned him a deserved six-day ban from the Cheltenham stewards.

These days, it’s much more likely to be “horse with over a stone in hand gets cocky rider out of trouble after being given too much to do”, but I digress, and I’ve come here, not to bury Caesar, but to praise him (with apologies to William Shakespeare).

Every now and again a ride comes along in a big race where a jockey truly excels, and it’s not always obvious, because a great ride is about judgment as much as it is about style or strength in the saddle, and such niceties are often missed.

In my opinion, the finest ride I’ve ever seen over fences was the one given to 13-year-old Sirrah Jay in the Topham at Aintree 30 years ago.

Literally nobody remembers anything about that ride except for me and Adrian Maguire, and the look on Adrian’s face when I told him it was top of my list is one which I’ll never forget. He knew, and he knew that I knew, and that’s good enough for me.

Right direction

Gavin Sheehan has some way to go to supplant Adrian Maguire in my particular pantheon, but he did take a big step in the right direction with the ride he gave to Datsalrightgino in Newbury’s Coral Gold Cup last Saturday.

On a horse who had gained three of his four career wins at around two miles, and was stepping up six furlongs in trip, Sheehan had no easy task in managing the twin feats of conserving his mount’s stamina while giving him every chance of winning, and he did it with absolute precision.

Held up along the inside, Sheehan cut every corner and avoided every pitfall as he nursed Datsalrightgino into the race, but he did so without fighting the gelding, and he took no elaborate pull on the starting line as so many hold-up riders do.

The pace was always likely to be fast with Ahoy Senor in the field, and Sheehan let his horse roll initially before taking him in hand.

He was never detached from the field, and raced with a rail immediately on his left, but still managed to give Datsalrightgino loads of space so he was never in danger of getting squeezed out or crowded, and although several were hampered when Midnight River fell, the eventual winner sailed past without a care.

Excellent judgment

Sheehan again showed excellent judgment to improve his position on the exit from the back straight, moving past the weakening Ahoy Senor before that tiring rival could roll into his path, and he continued to drive up the inside as the field bypassed the cross fence, thereby ensuring that he wasn’t reliant on the leaders merely falling into a hole, but in a position to launch a challenge at the most opportune moment.

At the first fence in the straight he had moved up to sixth place, all the while keeping the revs up and always looking for the right stride for the approaching fence.

He saw every stride and needed to in order to maintain his relentless progress, and when he had to shorten into the last fence, he – and his most willing partner – did it so cleverly that they came out of that obstacle with marginally more momentum than Mahler Mission, and the race was won in that instant.

Datsalrightgino is a generous traveller, but a look back at the race shows that he didn’t simply cruise around on the bridle behind an overly strong gallop but was always being asked to maintain a uniform pace, and the sectionals show that while this was a well-run race, it did not particularly play into the hands of those held up.

This was a wonderful effort by a likeable horse, and a flawless ride by a jockey at the peak of his powers.

IF Gavin Sheehan’s ride on Datsalrightgino was the sublime, then the ridiculous was his 14-day ban under the “non-triers” rule at Huntingdon which was rightly overturned on appeal on Thursday.

Riding hurdling debutant Zain Nights for Lucy Wadham, Sheehan finished third to 4/11 favourite Tellherthename, but was not hard on his mount, who had been ‘guessy’ at his early hurdles.

I’m sure you will find punters who feel that Zain Nights might have finished second with a stronger ride in the straight, but if you are trying to work out what that ride might have cost such punters, then you need to be aware that he wouldn’t have won had the kitchen sink been thrown at him, and the only backers losing out (arguably) are the tiny proportion who bet the forecast or exacta.

Even then, it’s far from certain that a more aggressive ride would have yielded second place, and the rider’s defence - that he was trying to ensure that the gelding’s jumping held up in the closing stages - is undoubtedly valid.

In offering such an explanation, however, Sheehan was effectively saying that he felt the need to look after Zain Nights until he could make a more significant effort after the last, and that was not a pre-ordained plan, but only after a couple of sketchy early jumps caused him to change his tactics.

Animated in the saddle

Obtaining the best possible place isn’t just about looking animated in the saddle, but making judgment calls about what questions are reasonable to ask, and Sheehan decided that firing Zain Nights at the hurdles in the straight might do more harm than good.

In doing so, the Huntingdon stewards decided that he was schooling the horse in public, which remains the ultimate sin in racing. But should that be so?

If horse welfare is uppermost in the minds of those who run the sport of horseracing, then it sits starkly against that principle that horses must be hard ridden on their debut over hurdles.

Experience

If there are no schooling hurdles, then hurdling debutants only have experience jumping at home to draw upon; that is incomparable to what happens in a race, so all but the most natural jumpers will need to be looked after to some degree when having their first experience.

The key is to ensure that they are asked to be competitive if they can without throwing them at their obstacles with abandon, and Sheehan’s ride was commensurate with that. If that means the rule is wrong, then change the rule.