Damaging and pointless: why the removal of saunas is a misguided intervention

If the permanent closure of saunas on Irish racecourses promised a legitimate end to jockeys pushing the limits of what their bodies can endure in terms of weight loss, I’d be all for it. But it doesn’t.

Ripping out the saunas doesn’t remove that problem. It just moves it elsewhere, away from the racecourse to somewhere where it won’t need to be acknowledged or discussed. When did out of sight, out of mind become the progressive option?

The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board’s senior medical officer Dr Jennifer Pugh is a fantastic person who has the respect of the entire racing community on both sides of the Irish Sea. Her research ahead of her advice to replicate what has happened in Britain and close the saunas at Irish tracks was doubtless thorough, and you don’t need a medical degree to grasp that sweating on a daily basis to lose weight isn’t an optimal lifestyle regime.