Racing, along with many other sports, suffers from inconsistency. Sure, we all recognise that horses know more ways to lose than they do to win, that’s just the magnificent uncertainty of having a punt. But there is one level at which racing’s inconsistencies just don’t make any sense, and it’s a level that can quite easily be fixed – if there’s a will to do it.

I’m talking about the differences in how various racing jurisdictions interpret the Australian Rules of Racing.

Let’s take last Saturday, 2 June, as an example. I accept that it’s a single day, but look back over the past twelve months and you will find that it really is a typical example. The problem is very simply stated: with the same Rules of Racing, the various jurisdictions seem to be unable to achieve any consistency in how those Rules are applied. Here’s a summary.

At Moonee Valley last Saturday, 4 jockeys copped a combined 38 meetings of suspensions for careless riding. One jockey copped a suspension for 8 days at Doomben. But at Rosehill, Morphettville, Belmont, Alice Springs and Devonport there were no suspensions for careless riding – none, nada, zero.

At Moonee Valley last Saturday, there were no reprimands, fines or suspensions based on contraventions of the whip rules. But at Rosehill, there were 11 mentions in the Stewards Report regarding issues around the whip rules. At Morphettville, there were 3 reprimands under the whip rules. There were none at Doomben, Belmont, Alice Springs or Devonport.

It isn’t that the stewards aren’t doing their jobs. All of the Stewards Reports carried the usual comments about weight issues, trainers advising of tactical changes, and the rest of the matters that are involved in any race day. But, all of the reports outside Victoria carried mentions of horses being tightened or inconvenienced in races due to other horses shifting ground. Only in Victoria did those mentions result in careless riding suspensions.

Why is it so? Are Victorian jockeys poorer horsemen than there interstate counterparts? Are they more reckless? Does everywhere outside Victoria have lanes that the horses have to keep to? Or is there a bias coming out in the way stewards in Victoria view the things that happen in any race?

Now for the whip rules. Have Victorian jockeys “got” the whip rules, whereas in the other states, the jockeys can’t get their heads around them? It’s simply illogical to take that view.

Taking these examples, it’s easy to understand how jockeys can get frustrated by the way that the Racing Rules are interpreted, and it’s easy to understand why some jockeys take a verbal swipe at the stewards on occasions. The jockeys are getting suspended on what seems to be an almost whimsical application of the Racing Rules, particularly as they are applied to careless riding.

So what is the problem? Why can’t there be any consistency across jurisdictions?

Perhaps there are two main reasons.

The first one, and this applies particularly to the whip rules, is that there is no point having a rule that can’t be, or won’t be, policed effectively. Quite frankly, the whip rules are an absurdity – a politically correct nod to people not involved in riding or racing that doesn’t bear any relationship to the reasons jockeys carry whips. And let’s not even mention spurs! When the bleeding hearts jump on that one, the whip rules will appear sensible by comparison!

The second reason, and this is more worrying, is that there seems to be an ego thing happening in Victoria. Why is it that suspensions are handed out in Melbourne for “infringements” that are treated with cautions elsewhere? I have written before that there are obvious problems in the Victorian integrity administration; this situation is just one more example that shows that something needs to be sorted out.

But even more important is the fact that it is blatantly obvious that the various racing administrations across the country need to put their parochial hats aside, get together, and develop a standard set of guidelines for interpreting the Racing Rules and policing jockey riding behavior, tactics and whip techniques.

Who is going to take the lead? Who is going to make it happen? More importantly, who amongst the leading lights in Australian racing is willing to stand up and be counted as a national voice?

Sadly, the answer appears to be a pineapple.