IT has been a busy week as usual for stewards (and stipes) in the UK, and I’d like to look at a couple of cases highlighting the difficult nature of the job. The most high-profile inquiry of the week involved the running of the Chester Vase in which Aidan O’Brien trained the first and second in somewhat controversial circumstances.

Many seasoned race readers were of the opinion that Seamus Heffernan did all he could to set the race up for hot favourite US Army Ranger, who won in a tight photo after Heffernan steered his mount Port Douglas wide of the rail in a manoeuvre which guaranteed his stablemate had the room he needed in the straight having looked in danger of being boxed in at one stage. Heffernan was rather less animated than Ryan Moore in the final furlong, and it’s to the credit of the Chester stewards that they held what was quite a lengthy running-and-riding inquiry into the incidents.