How do we hope to attract fans if we can't even start races on time?

It's Saturday afternoon, ten past three. Maybe you're at a football match, watching down the pub with some friends, or at home flicking between the Wasps v Exeter Chiefs game, the European Tour golf at the legendary Valderrama and the latest football scores on Soccer Saturday. You could be out on the golf course yourself or shopping with your partner.

Whatever you're doing, though, it's Champions Day, one of the biggest racedays of the year, so you get your phone out or suggest nipping into the bookies to watch the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.

Except there are no horses. No Palace Pier, no Baaeed. Hopefully they're on their way to the start, but you know from painful experience there is a fair chance they haven't even left the parade ring.