Doping scandal: why has nothing been done to stop another horse being nobbled?

From opening remarks to verdict, last week's dope-related disciplinary hearing took just two hours, expeditious work in the eyes of regular attendees. There have been hearings that ended at the same moment I was due to be filing my report, so it was a welcome change to be given time to put the words together.

The problem was that so much of the story was missing. Who were these two men who had got at Ladies First, named by the BHA as Neil Waggot and Stephen Walker? No biographical information was provided and nor, strikingly, was any motive.

We can make an educated guess. If the case involved just one horse, there might have been some question of a festering grudge at the heart of it all, but it emerged another horse had also been nobbled that day, the expected favourite in a different race, representing different connections. So the aim was to stop a couple of fancied horses and there's nothing difficult in working out why someone would do that, for all that the BHA chose not to articulate the thought.