In the past I have paid little heed to jockeys believing that other factors are more relevant and jockeys' abilities would 'even out'. I am having a quantum shift in opinion now.
Last saturday in Caulfield R8 I was totally amused (I'll call it 'amused' now) to watch D Stackhouse on Mr Make Believe get in a street brawl up the front with Jungle Ruler a $60.00 shot that wasn't gonna finish in the first half of the field. Naturally MMB capitulated in the last 150m gallantly trying to hang on. Just ONE example of multitudes.
Too many times I have been beaten by jockey stupity inexperience, it hurts.
Riding a horse is a jockey's job - is he interested in furthering himself by being the best he can, or does he just turn up, give it go and whatever...?
Is it a job or a profession to him? Pittsburg Phil said "A good jockey, a good horse, a good bet.."
As an analogy, in Formula 1 racing Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber both drive for Red Bull-Renault. The cars, having much the same architecture, technicians and engineers would be very close to equal, but Vettel is a far superior driver than Webber and, hence, on top of the driver standings. Clearly the person who steers is as important as the vehicle.
I totally believe that I have way underestimated the 'jockey factor' in the past and will be more attentive to who's on what horse in the future. The task is to evaluate jockey importance.

What be your thoughts?

The jockey thing maybe so , but for whatever reason , I have sited days where whole meetings, where the strongest jockeys just dont perform, being beaten by apprentices all day.

Try it yourself using the Neurals using the JA + JT (Jockey + Jockey Trainer) setting & test it over the first 2 Favs.
or any 2 horses where a winner was provided.

You will see over say 150 races that is 50/50

One day it will be brilliant.
The next day it falls into a hole.

Why is it so?

__________________
Cheers.

Hi Dennis
To give Mark Webber his due, there was the odd time were he probably could have won but was told not to pass his team mate.(sucks when you've got a bet on him). Hopefully this sort of thing doesn't happen in horse racing.
But you are on the right track I reckon. Jockeys are an important part of the mix, when trying to pick a winner. The problem I have always grappled with is how much weighting do you give to the jockey factor when compared to all the other myriad of factors that have to be assessed.
I spent a fair bit of time in years gone by following Don Scotts's handicapping methods and he was a big advocate of rating the relative skills of the jockey.
Jockeys too, go in and out of form just like cricket or tennis players.
Also you will find that some jockeys will be better in some situations than others. Some jockeys excel in their ability to read a slow muddling pace, others are better at rating front runners.
Reading back through my post I realise that I have only raised further questions without providing an answer, except to say that there probably isn't any one simple selection method based around jockeys, as baghwan's stats point out. They are steeringbthe horse, so they must have some input into the result. After all, they are the ones the punters abuse when a hot favourite gets rolled.