British racing may have won a battle at the budget but the war is still to be won

It will be of little comfort to gambling operators but there will have been at least one person feeling worse than them on budget day.

Who would want to be in the shoes of whoever it was at the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) who allowed a document containing the main details of the budget to be accessed before chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves presented them to the House of Commons?

That document revealed what the government's plans were for gambling taxes to both bookmakers and British racing, and would have elicited very different responses. The decision to nearly double remote gaming duty (RGD) to 40 per cent came as an unexpectedly heavy blow for the gambling industry and one that will have created a sombre atmosphere in head offices across Britain and further afield.