Apprentice James Innes jnr has been given a salutary lesson by the Racing NSW chief steward Ray Murrihy for a protest described as bordering on frivolous.

Innes's mount Mr Steal went down by a nose and the young jockey immediately said he wanted to protest against Tim Clark who rode the winner White Dove in the last race on Saturday at Randwick.

Senior steward Marc Van Gestel asked Innes when he returned to scale if he wanted to look at the vision before he objected.

Innes declined and went ahead with it but stewards ruled any interference in the final 100m had in fact come from his mount.