Hard to find a balance in fixture list between welfare and commercial demands

The fixture list is only referred to once in the research into mental health in the racing industry published this week, but its influence pervades the work.

The report, compiled by a team from Liverpool John Moores University in association with Racing Welfare, refers to the "relentless" nature of the sport while in reacting to its findings Rupert Arnold and Paul Struthers, representing trainers and jockeys respectively, referred to the human cost of servicing the fixture list.

The report recommends a fixture list review and the seemingly obvious solution would therefore be to ease the pressure on those who work in the sport by cutting the number of meetings. However, things are rarely that simple in British racing.