The stipendiary stewards in Hong Kong get some flak at times for being too tough on the visiting jockeys but they could be running a day-care centre by comparison with their Italian counterparts.
Top American jockey-turned-actor, Gary Stevens, had a well-publicised run-in with the officials in Rome recently and has posted a description of the incident on his website.
Stevens' mount took off and bolted from a chute on the way to the start of a 1,200-metre event. The jockey had a horror ride at full gallop down to the gates, where horse and rider continued on but soon realised there was nowhere to go.
The horse's rapidly slowing momentum was stopped completely as he struck a concrete wall, with Stevens still on board and he must have been thinking he was getting ready to meet the saints.
After the collision, the horse was bleeding from the mouth and a shaken Stevens called for a vet and a doctor, declaring both his mount and himself unfit to race.
But officials at the start ordered Stevens to remount and ride, telling him the incident should not worry someone of his standing.
The horse was apparently well-fancied and his trainer, Bruno Grizzetti - whose horse Maktub veered in and ran through a railing at trackwork last December during international week before running in the Hong Kong Vase - insisted the horse must start.