Prize money is higher than ever, racecourse attendances are on the up and there are more horses in training than ever before. The racing industry should be booming.

But, after the events of the last ten days, public confidence in the sport is at an all-time low. There is constant in-fighting between the various factions and there isn't even someone to succeed Peter Savill when he completes his term as chairman of the British Horseracing Board later this year.

But nobody is more important than the men who ride the horses. A jockey can undo months of patient work by a trainer and his staff in five seconds with a clumsy move or rash decision.

That's why some become leaders of the profession and others remain journeymen while a few are simply lucky to get rides.

Findon-based Philip Hide is approaching seniority among the ranks of jump riders. Jockeys are under scrutiny more than ever before, but the 30-year-old says he doesn't feel under any more pressure.

"I have been a jockey now for 13 years. I grew up with the level of vigilance much as it is now," he said.

"I don't feel too much pressure, other than the pressure I put on myself to give every horse the best possible ride.

"But this is a professional sport with large sums of money involved and it has to be run professionally."

Since Hide began his career several innovations have been made. For example, a jockey is obliged to report to the stewards any problems he has experienced during a race such as difficulty in acting on the ground, hanging right or left or not facing the kick-back on all-weather surfaces. All these factors are recorded.

The mobile phone controversy has now resolved itself after the Jockey Club allowed the matter to become a major PR fiasco.

"Now we have a sensible compromise," said Hide. "All our phone numbers are registered and you no longer have to sign the book in the weighing room every time you want to make a call.

"The records are available for inspection if required and it has all worked out quite well in the end."

Hide is convinced that racing today is as straight as it has ever been and deplores the adverse publicity.

"Every untoward incident is magnified by the press and not surprisingly the public perception of racing has been affected.

"But the vigilance today is greater than it has ever been. You don't think about the camera patrols when you are riding, but when you see the films available to the stewards you realise that every angle is covered. They miss nothing. Quite right too."

Hide reserves his strongest criticism for the advent of the betting exchanges and believes the authorities are right to be concerned.

"You cannot guarantee a horse will win, but it is possible to guarantee that it won't," he added.

"There's a tiny percentage of dishonest folk in all human activities and in racing the ability to lay a horse on the exchanges to lose a race is virtually a licence to print money.

"The betting exchanges have opened up a potential minefield, but thank goodness most of them co-operate and report unusual betting moves straight to Jockey Club security."

Unlike the Keiren Fallon affair, which is pretty cut and dried, opinion is divided over Sean Fox's balletic exit from the saddle of Ice Saint halfway through a four-horse race at Fontwell on Monday.

It looked bad and yes, the horse drifted in the betting market and inevitably the usual suspects raced to the obvious conclusion that Fox baled out.

But not even the Lord Chief Justice could prove that Fox deliberately stepped off Ice Saint. Red Indians and stuntmen can do that at 30mph and expect to walk away, but only a jockey involved in the underworld of betting would consider such an action and there is not a shred of evidence that Fox has.

Which is why his appeal against the 21-day suspension handed out by the Fontwell stewards for "failing to take all reasonable measures to obtain the best possible placing and with the intention of concealing the true ability of the horse" is bound to be successful.

What the stewards have said is that he fell off deliberately, but they won't be able to prove it.

What they should have done is to refer the matter to the Jockey Club, buying time for all the facts about market moves to become available. But even then it is impossible to prove that the jockey baled out deliberately.