Tylicki verdict no sign of things to come as such cases will remain hard to win

In view of some of the comments made since the existence of Freddy Tylicki's claim was reported by the Racing Post in the spring, the news of his High Court victory will come as a shock to quite a few, and not necessarily a welcome one.

There have been panicky suggestions about potentially far-reaching and expensive implications for the sport, but Judge Karen Walden-Smith has done her best to discourage the need for headless-chicken behaviour, noting that her ruling is confined to the particular facts of this case.

"I stress that the threshold for liability of negligence is a high one," she wrote in her concluding remarks. "The finding does not set a precedent, either within horseracing or in sport generally."