I was told I wasn't trying if I wasn't cheating - and then I realised it wasn't a joke

In the last few weeks in the Racing Post, Lewis Porteous and Peter Scargill have written about two central subjects that have contributed hugely to the collapse of interest in US horseracing, namely equine fatalities and cheating.

When we came to the States in late 2014 with my son, aspiring jockey Jack Gilligan, in tow, we would visit the backstretches and make introductions and get to know trainers and riders.

“Go along to get along,” I was told. “If you’re not cheating you’re not trying,” I was told. I thought, for a long time, they were joking. They weren’t.