Racing: Nahema checked out of winning cheque

Serena Miss beats Nahema and Strata Lady in the Matamata Breeders Stakes on Saturday. Photo / Thinkstock

There are two jobs you don't want in horse racing.

One is being a course curator - no matter what you do you can't present a track that will suit every horse.

The other is having - under crushing time pressures - to make a decision on a protest in a major race where millions can be involved.

So, you have to have some sympathy for Judicial Control Authority members Adrian Dooley and Richard Seabrook.

Particularly when you are not going to get a consensus opinion that the pair made the right decision in not promoting Nahema over Serena Miss in Saturday's $100,000 Swap Contractors Matamata Breeders Stakes.

This is NOT an attempt to prove they should have -- judge for yourself on the facts below -- but in the good old, bad days in Australian racing, when they regularly bet on the results of protest inquiries, this column would have been happy to take $1.30 about there being a change of placings on Saturday.

The most important aspect here is Serena Miss' winning margin. A nose, or about half the width of your little finger. This is critical.

To make a difference of a bare nose, you have to unbalance a horse for only one stride.

In his summing up, Dooley declared: "there was minimal interference at the 50m for eight strides, but [Leith] Innes did stop riding his horse".

Whether Leith Innes stopped riding Serena Miss is totally irrelevant to a protest inquiry, it being relevant only if Innes was facing an interference riding charge.

If Serena Miss interfered with Nahema's forward momentum it matters not at all what Innes was doing at the time.

Dooley added: "When we broke it down, Nahema shifted in from five widths at the 300 [and] ended up two or three off."

Again, that has no relevance. The interference happened after that, when Serena Miss moved in significantly.

Dooley: "While [Michael] McNab was buffeted he still got his whip to the back end of his horse."

McNab was clearly unable to strike Nahema in the critical last two strides when Serena Miss lay in on him, but restricting a rival's whip use can be clever competitive riding and is not necessarily against the rules, unless the other horse is interfered with.

Chief stipendiary steward on the day John Oatham told the inquiry it was the stewards' opinion that Serena Miss had hampered Nahema.

Perhaps one of the most telling points is that Leith Innes was not charged, but received a judicial warning to keep his mounts on a straighter course.

A few years ago, New Zealand racing removed the right to appeal raceday judicial decisions.

You get the impression under the old rules this one might have gone to appeal.

The whole affair is sad given the race was, indirectly, a celebration of the life of one of the industry's finest women, Marie O'Sullivan, who died during the week.

And the fact that Serena Miss, Nahema and third-placed Strata Lady are all top-class fillies. Strata Lady did her best to bring it home for the O'Sullivan family, but leading on the day proved difficult.

Perhaps a course curator's job might be an easier gig than the JCA after all.

Turn on the sprinklers, boys.