GOOD jockeyship no doubt involves many skills, including strength, balance and coolness under pressure. It also involves the minimising of mistakes more than the maximising of the opposite. No-one can make horses run faster than they are physically capable of, but plenty can – and do – make some run slower.

I leave the more abstract elements of jockeyship to others to comment upon, but I do feel well-positioned to identify when jockeys are using their mounts’ energies inefficiently, for that can be measured through sectionals.