Fantastic to see Sunak's message - but racing needs to engage more with Labour too

It would be something of an understatement to say that the BHA has had a tough time of late but kudos to those at the governing body who organised the good luck message given by prime minister Rishi Sunak to the finalists at the Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards on Monday night.

No, it was not a state of the nation address extolling the virtues of British horseracing in great depth, but given what else he has on at the moment it was nonetheless an achievement to get the prime minister to record the message at all.

And it can do racing no harm to have the prime minister talk about what the sport does both for communities in Britain and as an instrument of soft power abroad, and say he wanted to see "British racing and breeding stay at the front of this global race in the years ahead".