You might not think a jockey could take anything instructive from a boxing match but on Saturday evening, I found more to admire and imitate in David Haye than in Mike Smith, rider of the Breeders' Cup Classic winner, Zenyatta.

Of course, Zenyatta was visually impressive. Horses that charge from last to first always are. Smith probably feels he has to ride her that way but I'm sure he would also acknowledge that it means certain things are out of his control. It is exciting to watch but fraught with risk of interference.

In his punch-and-retreat tactics against the enormous Russian, Nikolay Valuev, Haye reminded me of a schoolkid ringing doorbells then running away. He knew precisely what he had to do and he maintained the discipline and concentration to carry out the plan through the course of 12 rounds.

Essentially, Haye kept it simple, which is the secret to so much in sport. The same applies to Ruby Walsh when he rides Kauto Star and to Mick Kinane in a series of winning rides on Sea The Stars this summer.

Sure, he had the horse with an engine to take him there but Kinane was in the right position through every race until the Arc, when he had to make a Zenyatta-like run, with all its attendant melodrama, after being shuffled back through a packing field.

I watched Haye's fight to the end and surprised myself later by reflecting on it far more favourably than what I saw at Santa Anita. It reminded me that, apart from the odd quirky horse, there are clear principals I must always apply to my job.

Barry Geraghty starts a suspension tomorrow for taking the wrong course in a hurdle race at Wetherby. I haven't heard much public sympathy for him and he has made no attempt to shift the blame for riding My Petra on to the chase track at the start of the home straight. The general view is that he deserved every day of his ban.

I have a different take but I would hate for it to sound like a bleat on behalf of victimised jockeys. My view is that such incidents happen too often in what is supposed to be a well-regulated professional sport and that, sometimes, it is not entirely down to the carelessness of jockeys.

In Geraghty's case, the position of the rail did point him in a different direction from the one he was supposed to take - it will be interesting to see if that has been remedied for Wetherby's next meeting on Wednesday. Something similar applied at Huntingdon last season, when Graham Lee - again, hardly an unintelligent man - was among those suspended for a wrong-course offence.

Yes, jockeys make mistakes. Sometimes they deserve their punishment. But if there is a lack of clarity in the geography of a track, then the racecourse must also be deemed accountable. I believe that racecourses should come under the same jurisdiction as jockeys for every such incident and face significant fines if they are found guilty of neglect. That way, I am convinced there would be far fewer occurrences of this embarrassing trend.

Unlike a lot of my colleagues, I'm hoping the forecast rain stays away this weekend. My mount in the Paddy Power Gold Cup is I'm So Lucky. He has an attractive handicap mark, his recent form has been boosted and I would fancy him to be very competitive on decent ground.