Tough week for racing illustrated by tracks' exposure to media rights losses

In the space of a week or so, racing has been hit with a barrage of developments that have laid bare how grim matters could become over the next few months and beyond.

We’re all desperate for a bit of good news but it’s hard found just now. The salvo began with Nick Rust noting, not unreasonably, that efforts to plan for a resumption of racing in Britain were on a knife edge and that the government had to be kept onside.

At that stage, the first four Classics in Britain had already been postponed, and soon after Rust’s acknowledgement on Luck on Sunday, officials at Newbury accepted the Lockinge would also be delayed at best.