Jockey Tim Clark handed over his phone to stewards for inspection during an inquiry into his tactics aboard the luckless Washington Heights in the Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL Club Spring Preview (1400m) at Rosehill on Saturday.
Clark was hauled into the stewards' room after he spent almost all of the straight up in the irons on his mount.
From the top of the straight, Clark elected to "ride for luck" along the inside rail but never secured clear air, going to the line mostly untested aboard the $2.60 favourite.
"A number of stewards (three) that watched the race addressed concerns," chief steward Marc Van Gestel told Clark.
Stewards told the rider they felt he should have angled his mount around the eventual winner Kingsguard at the top of the straight to give himself a better chance of securing a clear run to the line.
Clark admitted the opportunity was there to go to the outside of the improving Kingsguard.
"The options are Lunar Rise (outside Kingsguard) which was first-up and about to have a heart attack with a mile and a half horse outside him (Etymology) or Tom Melbourne (inside). I was happy to be getting onto the back of him seeing he's been trialling so strongly.
"I think I've ridden around the right horses, nothing went my way."
After Clark gave his evidence Van Gestel asked the rider if he'd discussed with anyone how he'd planned to ride the horse in the lead-up to the race. Clark told stewards he'd had a text message exchange with his manager John Walter on the morning of the race.
Clark agreed to hand over his phone and the stewards' chief investigator Nathan Hayward read out the text messages to the inquiry.
Message from Walter to Clark read, "Hope they go hard in Washington's race".
Clark responded with, "Washington will be in front of three or four".
Gerald Ryan told the inquiry he gave no firm instructions to Clark and also agreed to provide stewards with an email he sent to the horse's owners indicating he thought Washington Heights would be hard to beat in the race.
"I just thought he rode for luck and didn't get any," Ryan said.
Stewards' adjourned the matter to inspect betting records, Ryan's email to Washington Heights' owners and review other factors of the race.
Washington Heights finished fourth and wasn't the only runner to return to scale with a hard luck story.
Tom Melbourne, which joined the Chris Waller stable this preparation was backed from $4.40 into $3.40 and he too failed to obtain clear running for much of the straight before getting out over the latter stages to finish second.
"Clearly the horse should have won," Tom Melbourne's jockey Blake Shinn told stewards.
