THE more you watch the incident, the worse it looks. Well Of Wisdom moving to his right deep inside the last furlong of the seven-furlong handicap at Sandown on Saturday, taking Surf Dancer’s ground.

It’s an old station, but there are new arrivals. Well Of Wisdom wasn’t disqualified. Well Of Wisdom’s rider wasn’t admonished.

The latter was mildly surprising, but the former wasn’t, only because of precedent, only because of the way in which the rules are usually interpreted, not because of what is right, what makes sense. Surf Dancer still had a chance of winning the race at the time of the incident. In quantitative terms, he traded at as short as even money in running.

William Haggas’ horse had travelled well into the race in the slipstream of Well Of Wisdom, who had led from early. At the two-furlong marker, Well Of Wisdom rolled off the rail, which left a gap of about three horse-widths between the rail and the leader, which meant that Jason Watson was well within his rights to allow his horse move into the gap. He had the horse to get there too, Surf Dancer moved up to challenge on the inside of Well Of Wisdom, with bucket loads of room in which to do so.

Surf Dancer probably never headed Well Of Wisdom, but he got to within a neck for sure, probably within a head. The pair of them duelled, Well Of Wisdom’s rider William Buick with his whip in his left hand, Well Of Wisdom back tight to Surf Dancer, who was tight against the inside rail.

Surf Dancer did move a bit to his left on the run to the furlong marker, and the pair of them rolled off the rail as a consequence. Perhaps this allowed the incident fit neatly into the tired six-of-one-half-a-dozen-of-the-other argument. But it wasn’t.

The horses moved back to their right, towards the rail. Well Of Wisdom was probably a neck ahead when he moved across and took Surf Dancer’s ground. Jason Watson had to snatch his horse up in order to ensure that he didn’t come down.

At best, the incident cost Surf Dancer a place, he passed the post in fourth place, and it is difficult to argue that he wouldn’t have, at worst, finished third, ahead of Ascension, had the incident not occurred. And it cost him his chance of winning the race, which still had life in it at the time of the incident. You can easily argue that Well Of Wisdom should have been disqualified and placed fourth, behind Surf Dancer.

Interpretation

People are wise to the machinations of the stewards by now though. Well Of Wisdom remained long odds-on to keep the race.

It’s not William Buick’s fault. He rode to the rules, to the interpretation of the rules. Get to the winning line first by whatever means you deem to be necessary and, almost regardless of what has happened, once you have crossed the line first, you will be odds-on to keep the race. You have precedent, if not common sense, on your side in the stewards’ room.

What if Surf Dancer had come down? What if the horse or the rider had been injured? Would the result have been amended? Would William Buick have been suspended? Probably the latter, but probably still not the former. That’s not right either. In that instance, you act because of the effect. Action should be taken because of the cause, regardless of the effect.

We have been here before. The rules as they stand, and the interpretation thereof, encourage a win-at-all-costs mentality among riders. They give the benefit of the doubt to the perpetrator, not the victim. And that makes no sense, either from the point of view of what is right, or from the point of view of what is safest.