Public perception a closed door on racing's attempts to influence whip debate

Us and them. No, not the Pink Floyd song from the band’s iconic album The Dark Side Of The Moon, but the phrase used to denote separate trains of thought that have no prospect of meeting in the middle.

For us, read the racing industry. For them, read everybody else. When it comes to use of the whip, it’s very much a case of us and them. Who are they, with no understanding of our world, to tell us what we should be doing, right?

Except that it isn’t like that any longer. Some among us are occasionally forced to admit we can’t stand up for a sport that allows big-race winners to keep the prize when jockeys breach the whip rules. Conversely, they who don’t understand us are never going to take racing’s side on whip issues. And since that traffic is only one way, it is hard to see how the whip as it is deployed today can survive in its present guise.