Committed to health of racing – even when we hold things up to the light

In the era of 'soshulmeeja' both opinion and criticism are cheap and the peddlers of the more bile-drenched drivel often enjoy the craven privilege of anonymity.

The late Sir David Llewellyn, author of the radical and often contentious Jack Logan column that ran on Fridays in The Sporting Life for 29 years, was fond of quoting Stanley Baldwin's famous maxim "power without responsibility – the prerogative of the harlot down the ages".

How Sir David, diminutive, mild of manner but with a spine of steel, would loathe the current climate that allows savage comment without the need for the author to put their name to often highly personal attacks.