Sometimes, you really do have to put the horse in the dock

In the glare of the hot lights and questioning, the witness was nervy and on edge. His dark mane of hair wet through with sweat. This was pressure.

'Yes, I've seen them all,' continued his inquisitor. 'The Sunnys and the Luckys and the Goldens. Just think they can turn up and wreak havoc, do what they like, go wherever they want. And if someone gets in their way - wham. Well, Sunny, I'm here to tell you that you're wrong. Somewhere in life, you got turned around and went off the rails, didn't you?'

Sunny rolled his big eyes and looked in vain for relief: 'But I've tried to tell you till I'm horse, which I was already, anyway. I only wanted to get back on the rail. That's what this is all about - and I was headed straight there until this little guy on my shoulder started to put his bib in ...'

And then I woke up.

Kind of a weird dream, really. No more cheese just before bedtime. Sunny Power sitting in a witness box being cross-examined. But then, judging by the weekend's racing, that's the only scenario in which the stewards might have seen fit to blame him and not Olivier Doleuze for the interference near the 200m in the penultimate race on Sunday. We have no axe to grind for careless riders. But there was something offensive and wrong with Doleuze's ban, as there was with Brett Prebble's at Happy Valley a few months back on Silent Dragon. Doleuze pleaded guilty but we can only conclude that it was in hope of a lenient penalty, as many guilty pleas from riders are.

From the moment Doleuze emerged with his challenge on the short-priced favourite, it was clear to all that Sunny Power wanted to hang in. Even before he took the lead, he was laying in and it was as sure as morning sun in the east that as soon as his eyes were past the ones inside him, he was going to try to get a better look at the rail.