British racing can't rest on its laurels after BBC probe

Perhaps it wasn't the most appropriate reaction, but I can imagine many people involved in British racing felt a sense of relief as Panorama unfolded on Monday night.

Personally, there was relief that we didn't have to watch all the gruesomeness they'd apparently filmed, as well as relief that there were no great histrionics (even the chap from Animal Aid seemed measured in his misguidedness). But above all, there would have been relief in the corridors of power that this programme seemed to have more to do with the slaughter business than the racing business.

Yes, it turned the stomach to see crippled and suffering horses transported across hundreds of miles to be slaughtered in the most stressful circumstances, but none of it was exactly new and even the abattoir involved had been in the dock before.