Let Mark Johnston loose on jockeys' title - he'd sort it

“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence,” suggested cult novelist Charles Bukowski. It's a good line but not always true, even if our increasingly binary, tweet-driven world offers no room for shade and nuance within its 140 characters.

Still, if you want issues and opinions, Mark Johnston is the man to talk to. Now let's be clear on this: I am a big fan, not least because whenever I am asked to produce a news analysis or special report into some arcane racing matter – a dread assignment, it should be noted – more often than not, Johnston is first port of call. (Channel 4's Jim McGrath is usually next in line.)

Unfailingly helpful and lucid, Johnston is an original thinker in a sport not overblessed in that department, never likely to toe the party line: a journalistic godsend, in other words. Admittedly, there are times when he seems to revel in his reputation for being able to start an argument in an empty room – indeed, I used that line when certain local journalists were discomfited by some less than reverend comments about the Melbourne Cup made just after he had landed in Australia. Something about the race's being just a two-mile handicap and therefore not the greatest race in the world by any means. Johnston's main virtue here was that he was right, though he could perhaps have sugared the pill. He remains no obvious loss to the diplomatic corps.