A perceptive, progressive and proportional report racing can unite behind

At 130 pages and more than 40,000 words, the welfare report is not a quick browse. However, it is worth taking the time to read it in its entirety, as it is a perceptive, progressive and proportional piece of work that offers a positive vision for British racing's approach to a thorny subject.

The report, the creation of the sport's independent Horse Welfare Board, contains 20 recommendations grouped under the headings quality of life, lifetime responsibility, safety and trust. These recommendations are sensible and well-argued, but the report's most notable contribution to the welfare debate may not be its practical reforms, welcome though they are, but rather its thoughtful attempt to find a common position for the sport to adopt on welfare.

In recent times, racing has often seemed to be on the defensive whenever the subject arose. Periodically wracked by internal arguments, it has sometimes seemed to swing between two extremes: either treating outside scrutiny as irrelevant and impertinent, or eagerly embracing reform to appease an uneducated or ambivalent public.

"Are we complacent, or are we overreacting?," the report asks. "People’s different responses to this question are often at the heart of divisions in the sport over welfare."

The report's authors understand why both sides in the debate hold the views they do, and set about talking both out of their corners and on to mutually acceptable ground. And there is no reason why this should not be possible: all in racing are united by their good intentions for the sport and the thoroughbred.

The reform the report argues for is forward-thinking but balanced. The authors, drawing on their diverse experience and backgrounds, acknowledge society's expectations of animal sports are changing and that new political and technological factors are influencing the debate, but they also stress the risk should not be overstated.

For example, the report's authors, in making the argument for change, note that nine in ten of us live in towns and cities and are effectively detached from the equine world, giving rise to "myths and
misperceptions" about horses. Yet they also state that there is no crisis of legitimacy. Racing remains the second most popular spectator sport in Britain, with a growing TV audience and rising betting activity.

The message is clear: racing should neither fear nor disregard the outside world. The argument is against both knee-jerk reform and reactionary obstinacy. This is likely to leave some at the extremes of the debate disappointed – that might be regarded as the mark of a job well done – but the middle ground the Welfare Board has so carefully charted should be one the broad majority of racing professionals and supporters can get behind.

Perhaps the most powerful argument in the report is that racing should engage with the public more proactively, rather than waiting for bad news or criticism and then responding in a manner that can be interpreted as reactive or defensive.

Fortunately, racing has a hugely positive story to tell the public, about animals lavished with love and care and a sport that applies world-leading and continuously improving standards of welfare. Already, through proposed initiatives like the National Racehorse Day, suggested in these pages by trainer Richard Phillips, we can see an emerging shape of what this positive campaign might look like in practice. Everyone in racing – professionals, fans, administrators and the media – has a role to play in that vision.

It has at times seemed the impossible dream that racing could one day unify behind a single welfare stance – the looming consultation on the whip may again prove just how divisive the subject remains – but the Welfare Board's report is, potentially, a decisive moment for the sport. It offers a vision for unity, reform and how we talk to each other and the outside world that, if widely embraced, would stand racing in good stead for the future.

Read this

'Pivotal moment for racing' as Horse Welfare Board releases five-year strategy

Welfare report hailed as 'watershed moment for British racing'

Tougher penalties for breaches of whip rules recommended in welfare report

The HWB recommendations in full

Who are the board's members?

Read The Lowdown from 8.00am daily on racingpost.com and the Racing Post mobile app with all the day's latest going, weather, market moves and non-runner news