Racing is unsustainable in its current form - we need decisions that are good for the sport, not just racecourse shareholders

Racecourse Association chief David Armstrong recently cited (November 29) in the Racing Post the financial challenges racecourses are facing.

The financial threats posed to the racing industry are grave at present, not least through the potentially draconian affordability checks which have at least, refreshingly, united our sport. Sadly there remains a huge amount of distrust between racecourses and participants owing largely to the lack of transparency over racing's income streams, not least media rights (something raised by both Julie Harrington and Julian Richmond-Watson too since his letter).

When David Armstrong talks of falling revenues, how can we comprehend what the loss of a slice of the cake means when we don't know what the size of the cake is in the first place? He claims media rights cannot be disclosed due to confidentiality issues but a number of racecourses commendably open up their books for inspection, so there is no excuse for the rest of them.