Does anybody have a best way to ask jockeys to ride as it is a part of the game I am struggling to work out which is the best system, it would be interesting to hear what others do or if they find it makes no difference and just leave it to the jockey how to ride.

I usually ride every horse I breed in its first run so I can see its preference. Then, it depends on horse/jockey.

By default, I then set each horse to always be ridden at its preference. But ..

Changing things depends on if I am running the horse at its preferred distance, and if not, what is the gap between the preferred distance and the race in question. If is it close, just the close early/late handles it. But if it is more of a gap I may want the pace also one step up/down.

Also if I am racing to not win, I may want the horse ridden against preferences (say to lower a handicap).

And last, if I get a horse who "prefers" something other than set the pace, but has the "quirk" that is has to lead.

In those cases, where I am intentionally asking the jockey to ride against the horse's preference: it still only works well if the jockey has a good obedience rating.

If I get a horse in and I don't care, say a claimer and the stats weren't what I hoped. I won't bother riding it, and then I leave it to jockey preference. Also, if the jockey has a low obedience I may unset preferences if running outside the horse's usual range. Not like they were going to listen anyway. There seems to be a hidden stat for if the horse will still run well if asked to run not at its preferred pace. It seems to mostly be set to "nope". So with many horses it won't work anyway. But if you have a good horse that runs well off preference you can sometimes pick some good races at bad distances for it.

But the usual is, ride the first ride myself to be sure. Sort out the horse's preferred distance with instructions being to ride horse exactly the way it likes. Then keep at that distance with the exact preference. If I have to run at 1f off preferred distance (really a challenge with those 1m3f horses): keep the horse at its preferred pace, and then tick the go early/late boxes if needed for the 1f off (or 2f if fences).

The only thing I ever do is ask the jockey to stick to the inside.

Aside from that, I will tend to ride the horse myself if it is any good.