Lies, damn lies, and what usually lies beneath

Statistics can be made to mean whatever you want them to mean. Use them like a drunk uses a lamppost, for support rather than illumination, or treat them like a bikini, in that what they reveal is suggestive but what they conceal is vital. Statistics are things you can look up or things you can make up; 72 per cent of adult white males believe that to be true.

There were two sets of statistics on show this week – actually, there were 115.4 sets of statistics, but 113.4 of them can be treated like a man-kini, difficult to take seriously and unpalatable to examine – and although both seemed to offer upbeat conclusions, somewhere beneath the surface it's possible to discern an alternative interpretation.

To France, where the scheme to give female jockeys a 2kg allowance has already been termed a success, despite the brevity of a trial that only began at the beginning of March. Admittedly, 'wait and see' was a British strategy, but 100 per cent of French racing leaders can't be wrong, can they?