There is no doubt Digger had a bad day, but all jockeys do at some stage. I just want to share some points about his ride on Lavishly. Granted it was a poor one, but lets not get carried away and suggest it cost her the race or even a winning chance.

Although she sat 3 wide, there was absolutely no speed in the race. While disadvantaged relative to the others, you can't say she was overly taxed and busted by the run, clearly something else was amiss.

Sitting 3W in a fast run race is bad....in a slow pace it is still a disadvantage, but not as great.

It's the same as if you are on a running track in lane three and your competitor in lane 1 or 2. If you both go at high speed early and then try and maintain it to the line you are at a major disadvantage. However if you both jog and only sprint the last 100m, you can hardly say that all your energy is gone before you have to sprint, you would still have more than enough left to perform your fastest over that distance.

That race was not a test of each horses overall speed and stamina, it was a test of sprinting ability over the final couple hundred metres. Lavishly was beaten before straightening and even after the ride she was entitled to do a lot more in the final stages.

As for the other rides that have question marks over them, well there isn't much I can say on them.

They all have bad days, even the good ones. There is no better example at the moment than Scott Seamer. This time last year he was consistently riding better than anyone I have seen in recent years...however this year his riding makes me think that you could put him on Tulloch in a Kembla Maiden and he would still find a way to get beat....maybe an exagerration, but you know what i mean!