Jockeys are being hit by shambolic whip rules on a daily basis - how sad it took a high-profile DQ to concentrate minds

It is utterly dispiriting to realise it has taken a high-profile delayed disqualification to again concentrate some proper focus on the absolute omnishambles that are the whip rules in Britain.

Anyone would think the ship had been sailing along serenely. Nonsense – the consequences just haven't had a direct impact on racing fans. They have largely been hidden from the public but they have been festering quietly in the background, chipping away at jockeys' livelihoods.

This is a cynical policy that has been evident for as long as the BHA has betrayed its immutable whip fixation, one that infers it is a threat to racing's very existence, a fallacy that I called out when the outgoing chief executive Julie Harrington referenced research that supposedly found that people who had no interest in racing thought it was a cruel sport.