What happened was this. The 10 of us lined up for a handicap hurdle in Galway this day four weeks ago but none of us wanted to make the running. So we walked up to the start, the starter started the race and we all just kept walking.

We walked on for about 60 yards, taking about 30 to 45 seconds to do so. It was cat and mouse stuff, nobody wanting to make the first move. You know the kind of thing I'm talking about. You sit and wait for someone else to take it up so that you can drop in on his shoulder, let him do the work so that you can take him later on. This was tactics against tactics, the kind of thing that happens in every race run on every course in every country every day. It's very rare that there's no front-runner in a field but that's what happened.

Eventually, Andrew McNamara decided to gallop off in front and make the running on Darby Wall.

And that was it, the race was on good and proper now. It turned into a cracker too . . . four horses jumped the last upsides with Artistic Lad and Barry Geraghty beating me and Mountain Snow by a length and a half at the finish. I was a head in front of Marbeuf and Paul Carberry who in turn was a head in front of Jawad and Davy Russell. Great finish, great race.

Or so we thought.

We came back in, weighed in as normal and everything was rosy in the garden until all 10 of us were called into the stewards' room. We hadn't broken any rule of race riding and we'd obeyed the starter's orders but these stewards were irate about the manner in which we'd started the race.

We were told that we were being fined 200 each for a breach of Rule 272, saying that we had been found to have acted in a manner prejudicial to the good image of Irish racing. We appealed to the Irish Turf Club and that appeal was held on Thursday.

The fines were upheld and we all walked away feeling as if they hadn't been listening to us at all.

The 10 of us . . . myself, Barry, Paul, Davy, Andrew Mac, Denis O'Regan, Paddy Flood, Adrian Lane, Shay Barry and Robert Power . . .

had to hand over another 380 apiece to appeal and when we lost the appeal we forfeited that as well.

I'm not giving out about the money . . . it's not an issue here at all. In fact, if we'd won the appeal, it would have cost us all a few quid in solicitors' fees anyway.

It's how we were treated on both occasions that has us all so annoyed.

We were basically made to feel as though we were wrong at the start of the race and that we had wasted everyone's time by appealing the decision. It was like the stewards and the Turf Club were talking to a group of bold schoolboys. I felt there was a complete lack of respect.

Prejudicial to the good image of Irish racing? Says who? There were no complaints from any of the owners or trainers. The racing public are never slow to let you know if they think they've been short-changed but not a one said a word to me or any of the rest of the lads. The media didn't even give out about it. There was a discussion on RTE television the following Sunday between Robert Hall, Donn McClean and Ger Lyons and they came down 2-1 in our favour.

We were sanctioned with a catchall rule that can obviously cover anything. There are rules we have to abide by that cover how you should start a race, how you should ride a race, how you should finish a race. We didn't break any of those rules. They got us on this rule that was vague enough to suit a situation where they took the hump with how we started the race.

There were 10 jockeys in that race in Galway and every one of us has done his bit for the good name of Irish racing. We all went out with our trainers' instructions and there's nobody who can say that the likes of Jessica Harrington, Willie Mullins, Noel Meade and Enda Bolger haven't done wonders for the good image of Irish racing. Check the papers over the winter and when Cheltenham and the Grand National come around next spring and we'll see who's doing the most for the sport's good image.

Will it be the stewards at Galway?

The fine men of the Irish Turf Club?

It seems to me that some of the people who've managed to get themselves into the position where they have the power to sanction race-riders and trainers have more interest in the rules than the sport.

To me, the beauty of the game is to be found in the tactics. You walk along and walk along, sneak a look to the left and a look to the right, see who's the one that's going to be brave enough to sit the longest. It's the brilliance of racing. For the stewards in Galway to haul 10 jockeys into a little room and reprimand us like we're 10-year-olds suggests to me that they had little appreciation of the tactics involved.

There was no public outcry. No bookmakers complained. The assistant handicapper Andrew Shaw actually came with us to the appeal and said that from a handicapping point of view, the race was perfect. Each horse ran on its merits.

There's a new track going to be opened in Fairyhouse next Tuesday and a group of us have been asked by the Turf Club to go over to it see if it's okay. We'll inspect the fences and ride around it, give them an idea of what needs to be changed here and there. The Turf Club employee we'll be talking to will be paid to be there. We won't. We'll be doing it on our own time and off our own backs so that a day doesn't come in the future where something happens at the track that could have been avoided. After all, the good image of Irish racing has to be upheld.

The findings on 10 September and last Thursday did nothing for that image.