Rich or poor, all trainers face the same fines for wrongdoing - can it be right?

Social media gets pretty mixed reviews, especially in horseracing, but useful interventions turn up at regular intervals and the latest one came my way the other day. A reader suggested it was pretty daft, on reflection, to be meting out the same fine to any racing professional who happened to break a particular rule, regardless of their ability to pay.

The thought was prompted by the Mark Gillard case which, after exhaustive procedure and a four-day hearing, ended on Tuesday with a fine of £3,333.33. It's an odd-looking sum to have settled on, odder still when you learn it is actually the result of two separate fines being added together; one of £3,000 and another of £500, the latter being reduced by one-third to take account of mitigating circumstances.

The problem is that, for any rule punishable with a financial penalty, there's a specific sum mentioned in the rules. That's the entry point punishment and disciplinary panels can then add to it or subtract from it, depending on whether they were impressed by the defendant or dismayed.