Echoes of Dick Francis as the Hughie Morrison whodunnit gets under way

Who pressed the plunger? That was the question that dominated proceedings on the opening day of the Hughie Morrison doping hearing, a case that has all the ingredients of a classic paperback whodunnit.

We heard about a fellow trainer with a possible motive for revenge, a triumvirate of disgruntled stable staff and a BHA intelligence database called Cyclops. We even heard scientific evidence from a professor called Dr Dunnett (first name, sadly, not Hugh but Mark).

"You're entitled to say we're not in a Dick Francis novel," Morrison's barrister told the disciplinary panel at one point. You could have fooled me.