Prize-money cuts surely aren't the answer - but there's no doubt racing must do better on aftercare

While listening to a debate among MPs on Wednesday, I was reminded of the works of PG Wodehouse. This might be a common thing – I don't listen to enough in the way of parliamentary proceedings to be confident either way – but even though the first Jeeves book is now a century old, there are still MPs who might be described as having Bertie Woosterish tendencies.

Rather than his yarns about the brainy butler, it was Wodehouse's Blandings Castle series that was called to mind this week. George Eustice, who represents the constituency of Camborne and Redruth in the Commons, was the man who made it happen, when he queried the need for prize-money in horseracing.

"Between the wars, my great-grandfather used to do a lot of showing of pigs," Eustice told his fellow MPs. "He didn't get huge amounts of prize-money but he used to win all sorts of wonderful trophies ... and that should probably be enough because these are, after all, often quite wealthy individuals involved in horseracing."