Non-runners review revives question of the regulated regulating

There are too many non-runners in British racing. The BHA has set out measures to tackle the problem. Those measures are tough but could have been tougher and perhaps in time will need to be. For now, a good start has been made.

Inevitably, the results of the review prompted some to blame 48-hour declarations as the reason why too many horses declared to run fail to appear, thus causing frustration and difficulty for punters, bookmakers, racecourses and, on occasions, the connections of horses who might otherwise have been able to take part.

Inevitably, it will be the case some horses now scratched from Flat races, and those jumps races for which 48-hour declarations apply, probably would not have been confirmed to run had a 24-hour cut-off point applied.