It is all change at the Jockey Club and its next chief executive will have to hit the ground running

A new broom is set to sweep through the Jockey Club with the news that chief executive Nevin Truesdale is to leave this year. The question is whether it will settle the unrest that has built up among the membership of British racing's largest commercial organisation.

Confirmation of Truesdale's departure will not come as a total shock given the reports of unhappiness among the Jockey Club's rank and file. As has been reported in these pages in recent months there has been resentment about power being taken away from the Jockey Club's racecourses and regions and shifted to its centre. There has also been disquiet that some among the executive team lacked knowledge of the sport.

Tensions were further heightened this year with a second successive fall in attendances at the Cheltenham Festival. The first could be blamed on rail strikes, The second could not and appeared to have been unforeseen. That resulted in a seven-figure hit to the Jockey Club's finances, a blow which precipitated the indignity of having to announce a £750,000 cut in the group's contribution to prize-money this year.