Stakeholders need to embrace declaration of wind ops but policing will be tricky

The consternation that has greeted the BHA’s decision to compel trainers to declare when a horse has undergone wind surgery since its previous outing does little to disprove the notion that some of racing’s stakeholders would rather ‘their’ game be left alone to exist in the dark ages all by itself.

Sure, it is going to create another administrative duty, but that’s modern life. People seem to want and need more of everything these days, so racing has to evolve accordingly. Adapt or die.

In terms of data, the sport in this part of the world has already lost ground on the likes of football and rugby. Just look at the analytical detail platforms like Opta now provide in those realms.